SHAKESPEARE IN JAPAN: AN
HISTORICAL SURVEY
BY
Toyoda Minoru, Litt.D.
"HINTED FROM
THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY
OF LONDON, Vol. XXXVI.
<y A
wv
( 77 )
SHAKESPEARE IN JAPAN : AN
HISTORICAL SURVEY.
By Toyoda Minoru, Litt.D.
(Professor of English Literature in the Imperial University
of Kyushu).
D< dicated to the memory of Dr. Tsubouchi, the first and
so far the only translator into Japanese of the complete
works of Shakespeare.
PREFACE.
This work has been written under the auspices of the
Japanese " Society for International Cultural Relations ".
It was begun towards the end of August, 1935, some six
months after the death of Dr. Tsubouchi, and before the end
of the summer vacation the middle of the sixth chapter
was reached. Since then, however, various causes have
delayed the completion of the work until now.
I am inexpressibly grateful for the peace and tranquillity
in which I have been able to finish my task, for that peace
and tranquillity have been dearly won for us at home at
the cost of peril and hardship to our brethren at the front
in the midst of the China Affair. There come to my mind
certain words in the general preface to a translation of
Hamlet, published in ]!»()."» as the first of a series of Japanese
versions of Shakespearian plays, the joint enterprise of two
able scholars. It was when the Russo-Japanese War was
at its height, and the collaborators expressed, in their pre-
face, their wonder at the placid security in which they hail
been able to engage in their work, which would stand as a
mark, to later generations, of the high tide of the national
spirit.
( 78 )
Not that I attach a similar significance to the present
work; but I hope it will not be without some meaning, at
once national and international. Many Western countries
have their written histories of Shakespearian studies in their
own part of this globe which the Poet's genius has made a
pleasanter place to inhabit; the present addition to this
kind of Shakespeariana will, I hope, by the story it tells,
reflecl credit on Japan as well as on the Poet's native
country.
The contents of the present work are part of the material
I have- collected in the course of my researches into the
history of English studies in Japan, a task which has been
facilitated by the subsidy granted by the Imperial Academy.
In compiling it I have had the valuable encouragement of
Professors lehikawa and Doi; to the former I am particu-
larly indebted for some material of which he has kindly
permitted me to make free use.
I 'or improving the English of this work sincere thanks
are due to my friend Francis L. Meyer, Professor of English
Literature in the Hiroshima University of Literature and
Science, and Lecturer in the Imperial University of Kyushu.
N.B. — Throughout the work Japanese names, when given
in full, are written with the surname first, followed by the
individual name.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEB PAGE
I. — The Gradual Approach to Shakespeare . . . . 79
II. — " A Book of New Poems ", and Some Early Foreign
Professors of English Literature . . . . . . 92
III. — Direct Translation of Shakespeare: I .. .. 102
IV. Direct Translation of Shakespeare: II .. .. 110
V. —Stories and Adaptations of Shakespeare's Plays .. 122
VI. Commentaries; Biographical and Critical Studies .. 132
VII. Shakespeare in Japanese Histories of English
Literature .. .. .. .. .. .. 147
VI 1 1. —Shakespeare on the Stage .. .. .. .. 154
Appendix. — A Japanese Shakespeare Bibliography .. 163
( 79 )
I. The Gradual Approach to Shakespeare.
Tin: first Englishman of any note to arrive in Japan was
Will Adams, a contemporary of Shakespeare's. Adams was
pilot of a Dutch merchantman, de Liefde, which in 1600
managed, almost a wreck, to reach the island of Kyushu in
South Japan. Adam's knowledge, so far as it went, of
scientific and technical matters and the general state of the
world, together with his sterling English character, seems to
have been highly prized by Tokugawa Iyeyasu, who soon
after became, as Shogun, the political dictator of his
country. Adams gave Iyeyasu some notion of West,
mathematics, built him large ships, and advised him in
foreign affairs. As a token of esteem the Shogun granted
him the privileges of a minor feudal lord : in a letter of
1611, addressed "To my vnknowne Frinds and Countri-
men ", Adams writes : " He hath given me a liuing, like
vnto a lordship in England, with eightie or ninetie husband-
men, that be as my . . . seruants.*" He married a Japanese
woman, by whom he had children, and spent the rest <>f
his life in Japan. Through his good offices commercial
intercourse was established between England and Japan, ami
an English " Factory " was set up at Hirado in Kyushu,
a little seaport where the Dutch " Factory " had been built
a few years earlier.
In England at this time Shakespeare was enjoying the
prosperity of his latter years. If business relations between
the two countries had continued, he and his plays would
have become known in Japan much sooner than they did ;
for the Diary of Richard Cocks, founder of the "Hirado
Factory ", shows that several English books made their way
thither (among them being a volume of Essaies, wThich we
may presume to have been Bacon's) : but the English
" Factory " was unable to hold its own against Duti-h
influence, then rapidly increasing in the East, and aff « r
about ten years it was given up. Soon after, the persecu-
tion of the Christians in Japan resulted in the closing of the
( 80 )
country to all foreigners except Dutch merchants and
Chinese. This exclusion lasted for more than two hundred
years, until, shortly before the Meiji era, Japan reopened
ils doors to the world at large.
Long before the Meiji era, however, there was oppor-
tunity for the study of English by a few specialists. It is
true that the Western civilisation with which Japan first
came in contact, through Jesuit missionaries, was of the
Latin type and had very little to do with English literature;
and for many years after the closing of the country Dutch
was the only Western language that might be studied — this
privilege, or duty, being monopolised by professional inter-
preters at Nagasaki; but in 1808 the coming of the English
ship Phaeton created a need for knowledge of English. The
flouting of the isolation policy by the ship's arrival at
igasaki was too much for the chief official there, who
committed suicide afterwards; and in the following year the
Tokugawa Government ordered the interpreters at Nagasaki
to study English as well as Dutch, lest trouble should come
of future misunderstandings. This was the original motive
for English study in Japan. An English-conversation
book 1 and an English-Japanese dictionary, both in manu-
script, were soon compiled, but they were kept secret from
the general public.
In such circumstances the introduction of Shakespeare
into Japan to any noteworthy extent was hardly possible
before the Meiji era; but nearly sixty years earlier there is
an interesting iliough doubtful link between Shakespeare
and Japan : some critics have pointed out resemblances to
Romeo and Juliet in a play entitled Kokoro no Nazo Toketa
1 1 nil a (A Tangled Love-story with a Happy Ending), per-
formed in Yedo in 1810. This play was the joint work of
tsu Hyozo, later known as the "Great Namboku ", and
Sakurada Jisuke the younger; Katsu wrote the part that
its Shakespeare. As in Romeo and Juliet, a drug
1 rI In preface t<> this book which was made in 1811 says that
fifty years earlier b Nagasaki interpreter had copied out
;i book of Dutch-English conversation; but the study of English
• t" 'i;i\ c been continued.
( 81 )
causing apparenl death is used to prevenl an undesired
marriage; but here it is administered to the heroine by an
unrequited lover, to thwart her union with his rival. The
heroine unwittingly swallows the drug, and falls into a
deathlike swoon lasting twenty-four hours. This puis an
end to the importunities of the intrusive wooer; hut the
unrequited lover frustrates his own hopes as well : the
heroine chances to be revived, and rescued from her burial-
place, by a man whom she has loved in secret, and it is this
deliverer that she anally marries.
If there is really a connection here with Shakespeare,
then, as Mr. Ihara and other critics think, the Dutch conces-
sion at Nagasaki is the most likely medium. The theory,
however, is not supported by any historical record or by
tradition; and instances of revival of the buried arc not
far to seek in Oriental stories such as those in the Liao-chai
Cliili-i, a Chinese collection of uncanny tales, much read in
Japan since before the days of the " Great Namboku ". The
writers of the play do not seem even to have heard of the
name Shakespeare.
Shakespeare's name first appeared in Japanese, according
to Mr. S. Takemura, author of an early history of English-
study in Japan, in Shibukawa Rokuzo's translation of the
Dutch version of Lindley Murray's English Grammar] the
section on Syntax, in which Shakespeare is mentioned (i, s).
was translated in 1841. The name is transliterated into
katakana to represent the pronunciation (Sha-he-su^pi-ru).
The Dutch version mentions Shakespeare, along with Milton,
Pope, Addison, and Sterne, as illustrating the aptitude of
the English language for expressing imagination and feeling;
and in a few words it indicates the typical quality of each
author. The translator, however, mistakes these summaries
for the titles of works, and Shakespeare's " vindingrijke
geest " (inventive mind) is represented as the came of
something he wrote.
Shakespeare's name next appears in the Japan* Be reprint
(1853) of Ch'en Feng-heng's short Chinese history of Eng-
land, where it is followed by the names of Milton, Spenv
and Tillotson. In the Japanese reprint (1861) of the Rev.
VOL. XXXVI. 6
( 32 )
William Muirhead's Chinese version of Thomas Milner's
history of England, Shakespeare's name occurs in a passage
(at the end of Part V) in which special attention is drawn
to the richness of literary production in Elizabeth's reign:
Sidney, Spenser, Raleigh, Bacon, and Hooker are also
mentioned. The poet's name might be expected to find a
place in the Seiijo-jijo (Western Life) series, which began to
appear in 1806, two years before the Meiji era, and had an
enormous sale. The author, Fukuzawa Yukichi, was one of
the greatest educationalists Japan has produced; but his
interest lay chiefly in the material and scientific side of
Western civilisation, and neither in the section on literature
nor in that on English history does he mention a single
English poet.
Almost coincidently with the beginning of the Meiji era
something more than the mere name of Shakespeare was
introduced into Japan through a Japanese translation of an
English book. Nakamura Masanao, a scholar deeply versed
in the Chinese classics, had gone to England in quest of new
knowledge ; and on leaving London, in the first year of Meiji
(1868), he was given a copy of Samuel Smiles's Self-Help,
which he thought worth translating for the benefit of his
fellow countrymen. The translation was published in 1871 :
it had a large circulation, and introduced many names and
some biographical sketches of English men of letters to the
Japanese public. Shakespeare is mentioned, with the inti-
mation that there is little to be learnt about him except
through his works, and part of Polonius's advice to Laertes
is given. Once rendered into Japanese, this passage soon
found its way into an anthology of Western sayings, Taisei
Meigen (1874); but there it was given in Chinese form.
Freedom from error cannot be expected in such early trans-
lator.: but the Japanese style of the learned Nakamura was
h lucid and refined, and set a commendable standard.
A contrasl with tins conscientious effort appeared in 1874,
when The Japan Fundi published Charles Wirgman's version
of put of Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be, or not to be".
Wirgman, who had been sent to Japan by the London News
Agency, and lived in Yokohama, was something of a painter,
( 83 )
and gave several eminent Japanese artists a knowledge of
Western methods. His translation of Hamlet's lines is
accompanied by a cartoon of a samurai carrying a sword
and standing lost in thought. This is meant to represent
Hamlet, for above it we read : " Kxtraet from the new
Japanese drama Hamuretsu san, * Danmarku no Kami \
demonstrating the plagiarisms of English sixteenth-century
literature.*' The translation itself begins: " Arimasu,
arimasen, are wa nan desu ka," literally : " There is, there
is not: what is that? *' ; and the whole thing is a strange
pieee of jargon. This seems, however, to have been inten-
tionally absurd; for about this time various ''versions " of
well-known poems and Shakespearian passages were current
in England and passed for amusing, e.g., a negro version of
the soliloquy, beginning " To be or not to was, dat am de
interrogation ".
A few years later the complete play of Hamlet seems
to have attracted the notice of some Japanese writers :
Kanagaki Robun, a popular author, is said to have adapted
it, and Kawatake Mokuami made a rough outline of it for his
own use. The original manuscript of this outline, which
bore no date but was thought to belong to 1878 or there-
abouts, was destroyed in the fire that followed the Great
Earthquake of 1923; but luckily the contents had been
published in full by Kawatake Shigetoshi in the Shakespeare
Memorial Number (April 1910) of the Wascda Journal of
Literature (Wascda Bungaku). Both Robun anil Mokuami
are supposed to have learnt the story of Hamlet from
Fukuchi Ochi, a leading journalist of that time, who often
quoted Shakespeare in his articles. Mokuami was compared
by Dr. Tsubouchi to Shakespeare himself in the three
respects of profound knowledge of human nature, lack of
erudition, and genius in the use of old material. He gav<-
the Japanese stage no version of Hamlet, though he adapted
Bulwer Lyt ton's Money for a Tokyo theatre (1870);
Fukuchi is said to have given him this plot too.2
2 About this time an outline of Hamlet appeared, I am told,
in an issue of the Nippon-4chi Kibidango, a kind of Punch, in the
course of a description of the New York stage.
( 84 )
Adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, however, naturally
began through the medium of Lamb's Tales. In 1877 an
adaptation of the trial-scene in The Merchant of Venice was
published in the Mink an Zasshi (Popular Magazine) issued
every Sunday by the Keio Gijuku, a school founded by
the Fukuzawa Yukichi mentioned above. The anonymous
adaptor is probably Hayashi To, thinks Mr. Yamaguchi
Takemi, compiler of a Shakespeare Bibliography for Japan.
The adaptation curtails and thoroughly Japanises Lamb : it
is entitled " The Strange Affair of the Flesh of the Bosom ",
with the explanation that it is " an adaptation of the novel
(sic) by Shakespeare of England". The scene is laid at
Sakai, a seaport near Osaka, and the names of the characters
are suitably altered : for example, Portia becomes Kiyoka
(Odour of Purity), and Shylock Yokubari Gampachi (Stub-
born Close-fist). This being the first story from Shakespeare
to be printed in Japan, a retranslation into English may be
of interest : —
Once upon a time there lived at the port of Sakai a rich
man named Matsugae Setsunosuke. His father had served
a feudal lord in the east of Japan, quickly winning esteem
and high position by his merits; " but ", he reflected, " there
is a proverb, ' The wind blows hard against a tall tree ', and
slanderous tongues will be sure to turn my lord's good graces
to hatnd, with the result that my disgrace will live for ever
after me. Better to follow the example of that warrior
statesman in ancient China who went into retirement after
having won distinction in his master's service, and spent
the rest of his days in angling". So, renouncing his rank
and wealth as if discarding a pair of worn-out shoes, he
settled in the distant port of Sakai, and, devoting his energies
to making a fortune, soon became as rich as Tao-chu, the
Croesus of China.
Setsunosuke, the old retainer's son, had a chivalrous
spirit : he loved to help the weak and oppose the tyrannous,
to side with the good against the wicked; and he saved not
a few p. ople from a wretched end.
Among these fortunate ones was Murono Umejiro cf
Sakai. an intimate friend of Setsunosuke's. Bereft of his
father in early boyhood, he had become the pupil of Shirane
Ga'unsai, an expert in military science, then leading a
( 85 )
secluded life at Sumiyoshi, near Sakai. By dint of assiduous
study unrelaxed on frosty mornings or Bnowy evening
Umejiro, not yet of age, had amassed Buch a fund ol know-
ledge that his master set great hopes on his future. Now,
Umejiro's mother had been Beriously ill for sonn years. Her
devoted son personally attended to her wants, and spared
no expense to procure, even from abroad, any medicine that
offered promise of curing her. But it was Heaven's will th
in spite of his tender nursing she should die.
These long years of misfortune left Umejiro bo deeply in
debt that he was obliged to reveal his predicament to
Setsunosuke, who consented to help him out of it. He had
not sufficient money by him at the moment, but as he was
expecting his ships to return soon from a voyage to the
northern provinces, he went to Yokubari Gampachi, a man
of great wealth, and asked for the loan of the large sum of
three thousand ri/u for the term of one month. Gampachi
replied with assumed friendliness that la- was sure the ships
would arrive, but that Matsugae must sign a bond in which
the forfeit was a kin of flesh cut from the debtor's breast.
Matsugae thought the proposal inhuman, but as he knew it
to be a waste of time to argue with this grasping wretch, he
signed the bond, and gave the borrowed money to his friend
to tide him over his difficulties.
Time sped more swiftly than an arrow, and the day of
repayment came. No news, however had been heard of the
ships ; but just as Matsugae was despairing, word came that
the ships would arrive without fail the following morning.
Somewhat cheered by this report, Matsugae at once went to
call on Gampachi, whom he courteously entreated to allow
a day's grace for repayment. Gampachi, secretly delighted
to hear these words, replied with arrogant puffs at his pipe :
"What? I trusted in your word, knowing your reputation
here as a man of honour ; yet now you default on your bond,
and hang your head in my presence like a woman. The
court will decide which of us has right on his Bide." B
ridiculed his debtor saying that probably he was grudging a
piece of flesh to be cut from his breast, and after going on
in this strain he sued Matsugae before the court of the
Governor of Sakai. to carry out his d< sign '>f seizing the
whole of the young millionaire's property.
Now, Shirane Ga'unsai had long been famous for his
civic wisdom as well as his military learning, and the
Governor of Sakai himself held the scholar in such esteem
as to consult his opinion on difficult matters. Among
( 86 )
Shirane's pupils was a girl named Kiyoka, daughter of
wealthy parents living near Sumiyoshi, who was unusually
clever and good-looking : and she had recently become
betrothed to her fellow pupil Umejiro. Alarmed at the
painful situation of her future husband, she hastened to her
teacher at Sumiyoshi and, telling him the whole story, asked
for his advice. Ga'unsai, after some thought, clapped his
hands and exclaimed : " I have it ! There is a way to save
him ", and whispered in her ear. Kiyoka obediently put on
a judge's gown and cap, and they waited, eagerly watching
the progress of the sun.
In due course the Governor of Sakai, unable to decide
the case, sent in haste for the old scholar ; but Ga'unsai
pleaded illness, saying, however, that he would send his
pupil Kiyoka, who, though young, was exceedingly clever
and well versed in matters of law, and whom his Excellency
might consult as he would Ga'unsai himself.
The messenger, returning to Sakai with Kiyoka, reported
the scholar's answer ; and the Governor, quite satisfied,
entrusted the conduct of the whole case to Kiyoka. After
formally questioning the plaintiff, Yokubari Gampachi, he
summoned Matsugae Setsunosuke, the defendant, to appear,
with Murono Umejiro and others; and retiring to an inner
room, he listened to see how the young pupil would proceed
with the case.
When Kiyoka appeared in Court, disguised as a man in
lawyer's apparel, and calmly took her seat in the Judge's
place, all present prostrated themselves in respect. Umejiro
himself had no suspicion of the impersonation, so perfectly
did Kiyoka appear to be a man of refined dignity. First,
showing the bond to Setsunosuke, she asked whether he
admitted its genuineness, which he did. She then asked,
" Do you realise that your life is in danger? ", to which the
defendant replied with a deep sigh, " I do, my lord; but I
have no one but myself to blame, so I will not utter vain
regrets. I only beseech the Court to temper justice with
mercy ". Though the poor young man spoke in tones of
resignation, his sadness could well be imagined. Kiyoka
next addressed herself to Gampachi, admitting that though
the contract was extraordinary, he had none the less the
riL'ht to seek its enforcement in court of law; but bidding
him forbear, if he had any mercy. The cruel rascal, bent
Oil liis evil designs, was inwardly provoked by these words;
but not properly understanding this unexpected method of
persuasion, he asked, anxiously looking up, what his lord-
( 87 )
ship really meant by such ambiguous words, unworthy oi
an impartial Judge.
Correctly holding her fan, Kiyoka then spoke movingly
of the quality of mercy. " Mercy is a most valuable virtue.
Once we are possessed of it, our future happiness will come
unprayed-for. Buddha himself taught, ' Look at the world
with eyes of mercy, and your blessings shall be as boundless
as the ocean '. Hence he who has stored up ten thousand
pieces of gold is not so blessed as he who performs a single
act of mercy. Your suit is not unwarranted, but it is too
cruel : I beg you, therefore, to show mercy and forbear a
little." She added that it was only from solicitude for the
plaintiff's future welfare that she made this appeal, but that
if he desired strict justice she would decide the case on its
legal merits. Everything depended on the plaintiff's true
intentions.
Kiyoka spoke, like a veteran Judge, with so much feeling
and reason that Setsunosuke and his friends listened to her
with bated breath, and waited anxiously for the plaintiff's
reply. The insolent Gampaehi, however, who had turned a
deaf ear to all this eloquence, cried angrily that he cared
for nothing but the law of the State, according to which, he
insisted, the Judge should pronounce judgment, ordering
that the forfeit be paid without further delay. This merciless
answer struck dismay into the heart of the poor young
defendant. Kiyoka asked him whether he could not pay the
money; Setsunosuke, somewhat more composedly, replied,
holding up his head : " My lord, if my creditor would accept
a sum of money instead of the forfeit, I would gladly offer
two or three times as much as I borrowed from him." In
tears, he earnestly implored the Judge to intercede for him
and persuade Gampaehi into accepting this offer, for his
life now lay entirely in the hands of his creditor. Kiyoka
gravely answered : " Young man, that cannot be. For no
consideration may the law be perverted, <>r personal feeling
sway a Judge's decisions. That would set a bad precedent."
At this Gampaehi slapped his thigh and exclaimed, " O
upright Judge ! even Fujitsuna of old cannot surpass you in
integrity. I pray you, pronounce judgment quickly ".
The patient Judge, however, still tried to reason with
Gampaehi, advising him to spare the defendant's life for a
sum three times as large as the loan. When he remained
deaf to her arguments, Kiyoka seemed for a while to be
wondering how she could overcome his beartlessness ; then,
sitting stiffly upright, and fixing her eyes on him, she spoke
( 88 )
again. " Gampachi, you may lawfully claim your forfeit,
and no one can prevent you from cutting a piece of flesh
from the defendant's breast. But be merciful to one of your
fellow creatures. Take the money, and let me burn the
bond." This appeal, however, could not move the stony-
hearted Gampachi, who bawled angrily : " What foolish
talk is this, my lord ? Would you break the law yourself —
you, whose duty it is to enforce it towards others? " The
insolent wretch even declared in his rage that if the Judge
acted unlawfully he should be impeached for it. Setsuno-
suke, who up to this moment had been looking to the Judge
for help as one in Hell might to Buddha, now clearly saw
that the Judge's generosity could do nothing further for
him. With down-hung head and body bent forward he said
sorrowfully : " My lord, I thank you from the bottom of my
heart for your clemency, though — alas ! — your words could
not soften the flinty heart of my creditor. As I now fully
realise that there is no escape for me, I shall uncomplainingly
accept whatever judgment you pronounce." It was piteous
to see the poor young man thus resigning himself to his cruel
fate.
Then Kiyoka, taking the bond with due formality in her
hand, announced that judgment would be given, and asked
Gampachi whether the scales were ready, to weigh the flesh,
she added that Gampachi must have a surgeon by, lest
Setsunosuke should bleed to death. Gampachi replied :
" The scales are ready, but I have brought no surgeon; it
is not so stated in the bond, nor do I care a straw whether
he lives or dies." He had scarcely done speaking when
Kiyoka, rising, thundered : " Hold your saucy tongue, you
rascal ! A kin of flesh is lawfully yours : it is so stated in
tin I »oiid. But the bond, you must surely know, gives you
no drop of blood. According to the law, whoever plots
against the life of an innocent person shall forfeit his property,
half to tin State, and half to the person plotted against. If
in cutting off the kin of flesh you shed a single drop of blood,
or cut off more or less than one kin, you shall be put to death
without mercy. Now, Gampachi, prepare at once to cut off
your piece of flesh as you desire."
At these dread words Gampachi's arrogant manner
Buddenly gave way to ludicrous confusion. Trembling in
J limb, and with a quaver in his voice, he timidly said he
would he glad to take the money — indeed, he did not mind
if the money were not repaid, if only the Court would
mercifully spare his life. Of course Gampachi's repeated
( 89 ,
apologies had do effect on the Judge, who finally said :
"Gampachi, you surely will not follow the example of tin-
man whom you accused of breach of contract ? I may do
what I will within the limits of my judicial powers but it
is not for me to dceide in matters of life and death. Wait a
little, and the Governor himself will pass sentence on you."
With these words Kiyoka rose ami went into the inner room.
tsunosuke drew a deep breath of relief, feeling that he
had been snatched from the jaws of death, and prostrated
himself in silent gratitude to the benevolent Judge as she
retired.
A few minutes later the Governor appeared, to pass
sentence. " Gampachi ", he said in clear ton . *' this is my
judgment : 1 spare your life, in mercy, but your wealth is
forfeit by the law." At this all present prostrated themselves
before the Governor, and then left the Court.
This story shows tin swift turning of the wheel of
Heaven's retribution, and how woe will come to him who,
out of cupidity, causes suffering to others, whereas he who
bears affliction for his friend will be rewarded with good
fortune.3
Two years after this adaptation, in 1879, a student of
the Government University of Tokyo. Wadagaki Kenzo,
wrote a brief version of the plot of Lear, in Chinese. He
did it during the long vacation, at Hakone, a cool mountain-
resort whither he had gone to escape an epidemic raging in
Tokyo. Many years later, on the occasion of a Shakespeare-
tercentenary memorial lecture-meeting in Tokyo, he ex-
plained why he undertook the task and why he chose Chinese
as his medium: at the University William Houghton, an
American scholar, used to read Shakespeare with his classes,
and Nakamura Masanao, mentioned above, taught the Tan
Chuan, a Chinese classic; young Wadagaki.4 interested in
both subjects, aspired to combine them, the result being
the story of Lear in Chinese. It was not meant for publica-
tion, but part of it is printed in Tin Rising Gem ration
3 This upholding of poetical justice naturally fell in with the
taste of the generality of the reading public in those da]
4 He afterwards became a professor at the College of Agri-
culture in the Imperial University of Tokyo. Hi- interesl in
English was lifelong, and his English translations of Japanese
literature, both classical and popular, arc still enjoyable.
( 90 )
(Eigos, in< n : September, 1920), where the history of the
version is explained by Musha Kinkichi, who was once an
assistant of the translator. The complete manuscript is
now in the Waseda Museum of Theatrical Art.
The year 1879 also saw a Japanese translation of a
passage from a Shakespearian play : not the first real Shakes-
pearian translation, but first metrical one. It appeared
incidentally— almost accidentally : in 1879 the second volume
of Nishi Amane's version of Joseph Haven's Mental
Philosophy was published, and the Shakespearian quotation
—Henry IV (1), I. iii. 31-39 — in the original work was
rendered into popular Japanese metre. The translator is
thus, apparently unconsciously, a pioneer in metrical
versions 5 of English poetry.
Various sources show that from this time onward
Japanese interest in Shakespeare gradually increased.
Yoshida Isoho's Irohawake Seiyojimmei Jiten 6 (Western
Biographical Dictionary in Alphabetical Order), published in
Tokyo in 1879, contains a brief life of Shakespeare. In the
following year the Taisei Meishi Kan (Mirror of Famous
Occidentals) appeared, announced as a joint translation by
Inui Tatsuo and Nakahara Junzo. The preface shows that
the chief source of this volume was a book called Fifty
Famous Men, published in London; the Japanese work,
however, was meant to include many more lives. There
were to be twelve sections, of which the 1880 volume con-
tained four : the remainder seem never to have been issued.
The published part contains the Poetry section, and gives
lives of Homer, Dante, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, and
Milton : the largest space, twenty-seven pages, is devoted
to Shakespeare, Milton being a close second. Of the pages
assigned to Shakespeare, " whose fame far exceeds that of
other poets, and whose wisdom illuminates the world ", the
greater part is occupied by the history of English drama,
A few instances of metrical translations of Dutch poetry
into Japanese, many years before this, can be traced.
' A revised edition was issued in the following year, with the
new title of Seitetsu ShOden (Short Lives of Western Sages).
( 91 )
from Miracle Plays, Mysteries, Moralities, and Interlu<:>
through Ralph Roister Doisti r and Gorboduc, to the Eli:
bethan stage. A plan of the (ilobe Theatre is given, and
the custom of having boy actors is mentioned. There is
not a word, however, about Shakespeare's works — not so
much as the title of a single play.
In 1880 the Isekojiki Nichiyoeoshi, a Sunday pa]
published a dozen lines describing the plot of Romeo and
Juliet.
( 92 )
II. •• A Book of New Poems ", and Some Early Foreign
Professors of English Literature.
In the history of Japanese poetry in the Meiji era the
year 1882 is memorable for the publication of the Shintai
Shisho (A Book of New Poems), the joint work of three
university professors, which is closely connected with the
spread of Shakespeare-study in Japan. In March, 1882,
Inoue Tetsujiro, now a vigorous octogenarian, was appointed
assistant professor of historical science and the history of
Oriental philosophy in the Department of Letters of the
Government University in Tokyo. At that time the depart-
ment had its own Institute of Research, where Inoue was
compiling a history of Oriental thought. One day Yatabe
Ryokichi, Professor of Botany, called at the Institute and
showed the young Orientalist his attempt at translating the
" To be or not to be " soliloquy. Inoue found it interesting,
and had it published in the March number of the Toy 5
Gakugei Zasshi (Oriental Journal of Science and Art). On
the occasion of the meeting at the Institute Toyama
Masakazu,1 Dean of the Faculty of Letters, happened to be
present, and on the following day he brought Inoue his
own rendering of the soliloquy. He seems, indeed, to have
attempted a complete translation of Hamlet about this time ;
in the Library of the Imperial University of Tokyo there
are four manuscript fragments of a prose version, bearing
Minis of repeated revision. These manuscripts bear no
dates, but comparison of the soliloquy versions they contain
with the version shown to Inoue, which was later included
in .1 Book of New Poems, leads me to think that the latter
version, a metrical one, is the outcome of the manuscript
experiments.
1 A more popular vocalisation of the Chinese characters for
Masakazu" is " Shoichi ", a reading that Professor Toyama
himself often used.
( 93 )
After this the two senior professors, who had studied
abroad, brought Inoue many translations of Western poetry,
as well as a few original poems, all written as amateui
experiments. For some time Inoue had deeply fell the Deed
for a new style of poetry for New Japan; but his scholarly
conscience made him realise the necessity for preliminary
research. Now, studying these experiments of his friends.
he thought them worth giving to the public; with the result
that A Book of New Poems was published in August, 1882.
The work was announced as the joint production of the three
professors, each of whom used his pseudonym and contri-
buted a preface. Inoue* also wrote a general introduction
on behalf of all three collaborators.
At that period Japan was zealously absorbing Western
civilisation in order to enrich the national life, and this
book was an embodiment of the new spirit. Profes
Yatabe's pseudonym " Shdkon ", meaning "I adore the
present age "', is typical of the time, and all three prefaces
display a similar enthusiasm. Professor Inoue 2 relates how
he came to feel the need of a " new poetry " for Japan :
he once warmly supported the opinion of Kaibara Vekiken,
a gre.it scholar and physician of the Tokugawa period, that
the proper medium of poetic expression for the Japanese is
the toaka, i.e., the tanka of thirty-one syllables, and not the
Chinese poetry then in vogue among scholars; but after
studying Western poetry at the university he i:<>t new
suggestions from its form and use of Language. It is true
that short Western poems bear some resemblance t" tonka ;
but the West has also many poems on a large scale,
unmatched in Japan. Moreover, in Western poetry the
language advances with the period,3 so that poetry can
2 Professor Inoue's preface, unlike the two others, is in
Chinese. This may seem out of keeping with the " modern
spirit of the book; but we must remember that the writer »
an Orientalist, and that in those days the fashion of writing in
Chinese was still prevalent among Japanese scholars. This
combination of old and new is typical of a transition period.
3 Professor Inoue seems to have got this impression largely
from contrasting Western poetry with the tanka, the did
( 94 )
fittingly express even the subtlest ideas of the age. This
drove the young scholar to ask himself, Why not invent a
new form of poetry for Japan ?
Bearing in mind all the circumstances that had led to
the publication of New Poems, we shall not be surprised to
find that except for a few original poems the book consisted
of translations of Western poetry. The intrinsic value of
these versions cannot be rated very high — they were the
results of leisure and experiment — and the few original
poems lie outside our scope. The translations may be
conveniently grouped according to the translators : —
1. By Inoue Sonken-koji :
Longfellow's Psalm of Life.
2. By Toyama Chuzan-senshi :
Bloomfield's Soldier's Home.
Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade.
Longfellow's Psalm of Life.
Kingsley's Three Fishers (reprinted from the Tdyo
Gakugei Zasshi).
Shakespeare's Henry VIII, III, ii, 350-372 (Wolsey's
speech).
,, Henry IV (?), Ill, i, 4-31; with an
original poem of Toyama's as pre-
lude.
,, Hamlet, III, i, 5(i-90 (" To be, or not
to be ").
3. By Yatabe Shokon-koji :
Campbell's Ye Mariners (reprinted from the Tdyo
Gakugei Zasshi).
Gray's Elegy.
Tennyson's Revenge.
Shakespeare's Hamlet (ut supra : reprinted from the
Tdyo Gakugei Zasshi).
Longfellow's Children.
d'Orleans's Sur le Printemps.
The popular verse form of alternate seven and five
syllables was used for translations and original poems alike.
End-rhymes were attempted in two poems, one translated
■uid the other original: their conscious introduction into
which had, at I hat time, to be archaic; he was perhaps thinking,
. of the diction of Chinese poetry then fashionable in Japan.
( M )
Japanese poetry was a striking innovation, though allitera-
tion is common in old Japanese poetry. The use of rhyme
may have been suggested by Chinese poetry as well as by
Western verse; certainly the use of identical endings in one
of these poems shows little knowledge of Western rules; in
the other what may be called feminine endings are used
throughout with more dexterity.
Metre and rhyme, however, were by no means tin-
essential innovations of the " new poems ". Regular
syllabic patterns, indeed, were quite in the- old tradition of
Japanese poetry. (A little more than ten years later Pro-
fessor Toyama became a strong advocate of Japanese f
verse, specimens of which he himself wrote and recited. In
the translations of whole plays of Shakespeare's that \\.
soon to appear, no instance is found of the Japanese style
of measured syllables.) Rhyme, apparently unsuited to the
genius of the Japanese language, soon died out.
Wherein, then, lay the true significance of the " new
poems ,? ? Partly in the important change of writing poems
much longer than the thirty-one-syllabled tonka of tradi-
tion (not that Japan had had no long poems in the past ;
but they had never been the predominant form of its
poetry). The essential principle of the new poetics lay. as
Toyama saw, in writing long poems, not in old-fashioned
"poetic" diction but in plain and easy speech. Hut
Toyama's own grasp of the new principle was QOt perfect,
for he says in his preface that provided the poem is readily
intelligible he has no scruples about using words both old
and new, elegant and vulgar, or about combining Japanese,
Chinese, and Western elements. His adherence to this
licence gave his poems a crudity absent from those of his
colleagues in innovation, who still leant towards the old
diction. Though their practice lagged behind their prin-
ciples, the pioneers felt the advisability of two reforms ;
(1) the adoption of extended poetic forms suited to eonv.
ing sustained thought and the finest shades of feeling, and
(2) the use of present-day language in present-day poems.
The general verdict of critics is that the masterpiece of
( 96 )
the book is the version of Gray's Elegy— which happened
to be one of the " new " poems most akin to the old in
style ! But the whole work, because of its novelty and the
standing of its authors, attracted wide attention : in two
years' time a second edition came out, and for years
afterwards the book was drawn on by anthologists.
Something should be said about the early teaching of
English literature in Japan, which has a bearing on Shakes-
pearian studies. In the early years of the Meiji era this
work was naturally in the hands of English and American
scholars, to whose instruction and stimulus were largely due
the new poetics and the growing appreciation of Shakespeare
and other English authors.
The first foreigner to teach English in the Government
institution that, later developed into the Imperial University
of Tokyo was an American, Edward Howard House, an
i x-reporter, who counted Mark Twain among his friends
and in England had made the acquaintance of Dickens,
Thackeray, and Browning. Though the institution that he
(and a few other foreigners) taught at was of the highest
grade, the students were not yet ready for advanced work
in new learning, and the English that House taught was of
an elementary kind. His term of service was from 1871 to
1878; and nine years later he again taught in the University,
for a short time.
II is successor was James Summers, a fellow townsman
of Dr. Johnson's, who had taught at an Anglo-Chinese school
in Hongkong and been professor of Chinese at King's College,
London. He came to Japan in 1873, and was appointed
Professor of English Literature and Logic at the Government
institution in Tokyo, which was now better equipped. He
taughl there until 1876.
The Calendars for 1S7."> and 1876 include Summers's
imination questions. There was as yet no special course
m English literature, which, with the English language, was
part of the "General Course". Here are some of the
{ 97 )
questions sel l>y Summers in 1875, in which year he laid
the chief stress on Shakespeare: —
First Class : English Language and Literature.
Write out and paraphrase the first few lines oJ \\.
address : — " Farewell Sec. ... as I do."
Why is- Shakespeare held in such high esteem ? and
why is Spenser less read than Shakespeare? Give the
characteristics of these writers and those of Milton.
Write ten lines from Hamlet's address to his father's
ghost, and paraphrase a few lines.
Explain the expressions : —
"I find thee apt."
" The whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abused."
" The serpent that did sting thy father's life,
Now wears his crown."
"Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught."
" The glowworm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his ineffectual fire."
" Remember thee !
Ay ! thou poor ghost ! while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe."
" I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books."
Second Class : English Language and Literature.
Write out and mark the quantities and accents in the
passage from Shakespeare beginning, M I could a tale
unfold ".
The questions set by Summers in the following year show
that the main emphasis of his lectures had been laid on
Milton, especially L'AUegro. Other questions thorn that
Longfellow's Psalm of Life and dray's Elegy had been read;
and these two poems, together with the plays of Shakespeare
read in the previous year, are closely connected with the
Book of New Poems. Of the three collaborators in this
work, young Inouc (then called Funakoshi) was at thai ti:
a student attending Summers's lectures, and the other two
were on the staff. Summers's students also included Yama-
saki Tamenori, Okakura Kakuzo, and Wadagaki Kenzo.
VOL. XXXVI. 7
( 98 )
The work of Inoue and Wadagaki in spreading a right know-
ledge of the West has already been dealt with; Yamasaki
died young, but carried his enthusiasm for Paradise Lost to
the Doshisha, a Christian college in Kyoto, where he taught
and exerted a profound influence ; and Okakura will be
known by name to many foreigners as a friend of Fenollosa's
and as the author of The Book of Tea.
After the expiry of his three years' term at the Tokyo
Kaisei Gakko, Summers taught English for a time at a school
in Osaka. Then, from 1880 to 1882, he taught English
literature and drawing to the students taking the General
Course at the Government College of Agriculture in Sapporo,
Hokkaido. The poems he read with his classes there
included Gray's Elegy, Macaulay's Lays, and The Deserted
Village. Among his first students were Ota Inazo (later
Dr. Nitobe), Uchimura Kanzo, and Sakuma Shinkyo.4
Junior to them came Shiga Juko, Takenobu Yoshitaro, and
Zumoto Gentei, to all three of whom English became a life-
long enthusiasm. I am told that when Takenobu was at
Sapporo he read several plays of Shakespeare's under
Summers's guidance.
From Sapporo Summers returned to Tokyo, where, with
his daughter Catherine, he opened an English-school.
Okakura Yoshisaburo 5 was one of Miss Summers's few
4 Sakuma distinguished himself as an able scholar of English.
Uchimura became a Christian preacher, wrote many impressive
books, was master of an admirable English style, and left a
memorable testament of his faith, Why I Became a Christian.
Dr. Nitobe's memory will still be fresh in many minds. He
once said that though, during his four years at Sapporo, he
specialised in agriculture, English literature proved to be the
most useful of all his subjects in after years, and he was deeply
grateful for the beneficial influence that the lofty thought of this
literature exerted on his mind.
5 Brother of the Okakura Kakuzo mentioned above and
later one of Basil Hall Chamberlain's students in Tokyo.
For many years he taught English at the Higher Normal
College in Tokyo, and went abroad several times to study and
lecture. Until his death (1937) he was the most popular teacher
of English in Japanese wireless programmes.
( 99 )
pupils. In 1890 Summers returned to England, bill he soon
came back to Japan, where he died in 1891. The details <>f
his career, and the impression he made on his pupils, point
to a slightly eccentric habit, but he is spoken of as a man
of imposing character, and full of fire as a teacher.
When Summers left the Tokyo Kaisei Gakko in 1876, lit-
seems to have been succeeded by an American named
H. N. Allin, who had acted as his assistant; but as Allin
soon returned home, Summers's virtual successor at the
Government Institution was William A. Houghton, a Yale
graduate (1852 — 1917). Houghton arrived in Japan in 1877,
and was immediately invited to teach at the Kaisei Gakko.
When, a very short time after, this Institution became the
Tokyo University, Houghton was appointed full Professor
of English Literature in the Department of Letters, occupy-
ing this position for five years, until in 1882 he went to
Germany for further study at the University of Berlin. On
his return to America he was for several years on the staff
of New York, and later Bowdoin, University. He died in
America.
Houghton was of a more scholarly type than Summers,
and his teaching is said to have been more methodical.
Summers had set the appreciation of English literature in
the right direction ; Houghton deepened that appreciation
and widened its range. The text-books he used in his
classes included G. Craik's The English of Shakespeare
illustrated in a Philological Commentary on Jiis "Julius
Cxsar", and Hamlet, Lear, The Merchant of Venice, and
Richard II. The text of The Merchant oj Venice, like thai
of Julius Caesar, had notes by W. Craik; the texts .,f the
other plays were in the annotated editions of Clark and
Wright.
In 1880, after Houghton had been lecturing in the Depart-
ment of Letters for three years, its first group of graduates
went down. They included T. Inoue", K. Okakura, and
K. Wadagaki, already mentioned. Among later graduates
were Tsubouchi Yuzo, Takata Sanac, and Ichijima Kmkichi.
Due space will be devoted to Tsubouchi's Shakespearian
( 100 )
labours in subsequent chapters. Takata became President
of the Waseda University and is now a member of the Upper
House. He has related how, to help to support himsell
during his student days, he taught at a night school, where
he read Shakespeare with his class — passing on the know-
ledge he had very recently obtained in Houghton's lectures.
Thus he became, unknowingly, the first Japanese to teach
Shakespeare ; a few years ahead of Professor Toyama, who
read Julius Csesar and Hamlet with his classes at the Tokyo
University in 1882-3. Takata afterwards taught Shakes-
peare at the Tokyo Semmon Gakko, now Waseda University,
before Y. Tsubouchi began to teach English literature there.
Houghton's services to the young University of Japan
may be judged partly from an entry in the University record
of its foreign staff: —
" Although his tenure of office was only a little more
than five years, under his able guidance students made a
great progress. Before he came, there had been in the
University very few books of English literature and the study
of the subject much inconvenienced. But since Houghton
came into office, besides lecturing, he spent no small amount
of energy for procuring necessary books ; and it will not be
too much to say that for our present possession of the
adequate size of library on the subject and the consequent
encouraging condition of its study in the College of Letters,
we are greatly indebted to him, and due amount of apprecia-
tion must be vouchsafed to the merits of his zeal."
Okakura Kakuzo was a student of Houghton's as well
as of Summers's, and said himself that it was Houghton,
even more than his own friend Fenollosa, that first opened
his eyes to the right appreciation of art. Dr. Tsubouchi
declared that Houghton guided him to the true understand-
ing of characterisation in the drama and the novel; and
Houghton's influence on the production of A Book of New
Poems must not be overlooked. In a word, it was through
him that the foundation was laid for the study in Japan of
English literature in general and Shakespeare par excellence.6
For biographical details about Summers and Houghton I
( ioi )
Houghton's name is associated with that of \V. I). Cox,
an Englishman, whose Glimpses of English Literatii
Japan- s< Students, Part 1 (Shakespeare and the English
Drama) came out in 1888. The hook consists largely of
extracts from sixteen plays of Shakespeare's. Cos was then
teaching English in the Tokyo Unversity, as well as a1 '
Imperial College of Agriculture in the suburbs of Tokyo : and
this and other books of his seem to have been compiled
text-books for his pupiU.
I should like to conclude this chapter with a brie! mention
of just three other foreign professors whose memories are
precious to many Japanese scholars of English literature at
the present day. The first is Lafcadio Beam; who
succeeded at the Imperial University of Tokyo, after resign-
ing his professorship there, by Dr. John Lawrence. Hearn
was a literary genius whose aim was to teach appreciation:
Lawrence was a linguistic prodigy insistent on accurate
research. They approached Shakespeare, therefore, from
different sides, and each in his own way left a lasting
influence on Shakespearian studies in Japan. Professor
Clarke, who taught for many years at Kyoto, until his death
a few years ago, seemed to combine considerable aptitudes
for both language and literature.
am indebted to Mr. Shigehisa Tokutaro's contribution to Eibun-
gaku Kenkyu (Studies in English Literature). Vol. XV, No. I
(April, 1935). A Book of Sew Poems, its background and
influence, are discussed by the present writer in the sime
periodical, Vol. XIV, No. 1 (Jan., 193 0-
( 102 )
III. Direct Translation of Shakespeare : I.
The introduction of Shakespeare's works to the Japanese
public entered on a new phase when a complete translation
of Julius Csbsar was published in 1883. Kawashima Keizo,
the author of this and several other versions of Shakespeare's
plays, had not been to a university and was only a literary
amateur; his name, however, deserves to be remembered
with those of Tsubouchi, Tozawa, and Asano, whose
scholarly translations were to follow. The way in which
he acquired his knowledge of English and came to translate
Shakespeare throws light on the educational and social
background of the time.1 He was born at Wakayama, near
Osaka, in 1S59, which was also the year of Dr. Tsubouchi's
birth. At the age of ten he began to attend school in his
native town ; among the chief subjects taught there were
the Chinese classics,2 French, and English, the last of which
soon became his principal study, under a Japanese teacher.
He continued to study English at Kobe and elsewhere,
spending two years at the Rev. Channing M. Williams's
school in Osaka and the following five at the Rikkyo College
in Tokyo, of which the Osaka school was an offshoot. In
ls79, at the age of twenty, he returned home; in 1882 he
was teaching English at his old school in Osaka. In the
school library he came across a complete edition of Shake-
speare, and resolved to read it. He tells us that his choice
fill first on Julius Cspsar. There was a topical reason: in
the previous year an Imperial Edict had been issued for
1 Kawashima's life is fully dealt with in Mr. S. Takemura's
Ilistorji of English-studies in Japan (written in Japanese), from
which the details given here have been taken.
2 In the early stages of teaching the Chinese classics, at this
time, the method was simply to make the children pronounce
the sentences in Japanese fashion, without explaining the
meaning.
( 103 )
the inauguration of a Diet in nine years' tunc; political
parties were being organised; and in 1882 [tagaki Taisuke,
the Liberal leader, was seriously wounded by an assassin.
This had made the nanus of Cesar and Brutus household
words among the " intellectuals '".
Kawashima had no commentaries to aid him in his
reading, and the only person he could turn to for help in
cracking nuts too hard for his own teeth was the Rev. Mr.
Tyngi tne principal of the school. Nevertheless the young
enthusiast persisted in his reading, and was encouraged by
one of his journalist friends, T. Kusama, to translate the
play into Japanese. Kawashima carried out this task
within a few weeks in 1883, and his version was published
in instalments by a political paper. In the circumstances
it is idle to expect a translation satisfactory to present-day
critics; but Kawashima must be given credit for being at
pains to invent a new style suited to rendering a foreign
play very different in form from Japanese drama. He
largely departs from the colloquial and to him undignified
style of the Japanese ballad drama, and, adopting a mi
literary style, partly uses the still older diction of the
r?o; but the work was clearly meant to be read rather than
performed.
In 1886 this translation was published in Osaka in book
form, under the new title of -1 Mirror of Roman Vicisri-
tudes : it appeared this time as the joint work of Kawashima
and his friend Kusama, both pseudonymous; hut Kusam
share in the work was only nominal, though he wrote the
preface. In it he refers to Johnson's admiration of tin-
profound knowledge Shakespeare shows of human nature;
this piece of information, however, was probably supplied
by Kawashima.
In 1888, tlie year of this translation, Kawashima returned
to his birth-place; and, retiring after a while to a secluded
village on the river Ki, some twenty-five miles outside
Wakayama, devoted his leisure to reading and translating
other plays of Shakespeare's. We have his word for it that
he read twenty-two plays, several of which he translated:
( 104 )
and he often took the opportunity of telling audiences of
young people the stories of such plays as Coriolanus, Julius
( ;rsar, and Timon of Athens. At this time the only
dictionary he had was Webster's. He wished to consult
French translations of Shakespeare, but, unable to get
access to them, made shift with the German versions of
Schlegel and Tieck, to the best of his acquaintance with
the language.
Kawashima lived this studious country life from 1883 to
188C. The manuscripts of the following translations (the
first five of which are complete) made during this period
are in the possession of Mr. Takemura : Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, King
John, Othello, Macbeth, Coriolanus, and King Lear; another
copy of Kawashima's version of King John is in the Museum
of Dramatic Art at Waseda. Romeo and Juliet was
published (with several clumsy illustrations) soon after
Julius Csesar, and ran into a second edition.
Romeo and Juliet was first published at Kawashima's
native Wakayama, in 1886. By this time Tsubouchi's
version of Julius Caesar had appeared (Tokyo, 1884), and
in 1885 an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, by another
hand, had been not only printed but also performed. In
the preface to Romeo and Juliet Kawashima says he has
learnt from Dr. Tsubouchi how to introduce each scene
smoothly with a few (interpolated) words of explanation
leading up to the dialogue, as in Japanese ballad drama.3
Kawashima also prefixed to each scene a brief account of
what was going to happen in it, as he had already done in
his Julius Caesar.
In 1887 the second edition of Romeo and Juliet appeared,
with greatly improved, lithographed illustrations. Of
Kawashima's remaining translations some, Mr. Takemura
By this is meant the joruri, a kind of drama intended for
recital, in which the situations, actions, and private thoughts
of the characters are described in fairly regular metrical language,
;m<l tin dialogue is in realistic prose — a form of Japanese litera-
ture brought to perfection by Chikamatsu and still in vogue.
( 105 )
ys, are straightforward versions without additions; others
contain varying amounts of explanatory matter inserted bj
the translator; and .1 Midsummt \ ht*t Dream, which is
of the latter group, is all ready for publication, with a four-
page preface giving the sources of the play, the dates of
composition and printing, and the critical comments ol
various authorities.
In 1S87 Kawashima was invited to teach at the Queen
Victoria Public School in Yokohama. Host of his pupils
were children of foreign residents; among them was Edward
Clarke, later Professor of English Literature in the Imperial
University of Kyoto. During his three years at Yokohama
Kawashima organised a private night-school, one of the
boys he taught there being Katsumata Senkichiro, now i
well-known English-scholar. After leaving Yokohama
Kawashima lectured for two years at his alma matt
Rikkyo, where he read with his classes such plays as Hamlet,
Julius CcTsar, and The Merchant of Venii It was about
this time that his translations of some of Land Tales
appeared in print. In 1902 the Meishodo, a Tokyo publish-
ing house, began to issue a shortlived series of English t<
with translations and notes; the first volume, edited by
Kawashima and entitled Alt Iialxi and the Forty Thievt
after one of the stories in it, included Lamb's llamh I ; and
the third volume, also edited by Kawashima, which came
out in the same year, took its title. Three Daughters, from
one of its contents, Lamb's Lear, and also included .1
Midsummer Night's Dream. In the following year th<
two books were republished as one.
After this the tide of fortune seems t, , have turned against
Kawashima and continued adverse until his death. He
passed away quietly in Osaka in the spring < f 1985, not long
after Dr. Tsubouchi ; the years of both birth and death of
these two Shakespeare-lovers coincided, though their paths
seldom crossed. One meeting is recorded by Mr. Takemura :
it was when Kawashima was teaching at Rikk; Be
wanted Dr. Tsubouchi to be his mentor in Shakespearian
matters, but the Doctor replied that one who had translated
( 106 )
Hamlet did not need his guidance. He asked Kawashima
whether he thought he had made Hamlet easily intelligible
to the common reader ; Kawashima said he feared his trans-
lation could be understood by nobody but himself. This
reply, however, is nothing but an example of self-depreciat-
ing humility. It is true that Kawashima's versions are not
free from mistranslations, and the style is rather stiff; but
for these defects the age is more responsible than the writer,
and on the whole the language is good Japanese. Kawa-
shima deserves praise and gratitude for his pioneer labours
at a task that was consummated by Dr. Tsubouchi.
Tsubouchi Yuzo was born in 1859 at Ota, a village in
the province of Mino, not very far from Nagoya. When he
was ten, his parents moved to a house in the suburbs of that
city, and there the boy was taught to read the Chinese
classics, privately indulging a taste for popular novels.
When, in the following year, 1870, the Nakamura Playhouse
in Nagoya was reopened, he was often taken there by his
mother, a keen theatre-goer. During the years just after
1872 he attended a succession of schools in Nagoya, at which
English was taught. In 1874 he is said to have listened in
class to readings of Hamlet and other Shakespearian plays
by an American named Latham. Tsubouchi was then
fifteen : it was an early introduction to the great English
dramatist, to the study of whom he devoted most of his
long life.
In 1876 the local authorities sent the promising youth
to pursue his studies at the Tokyo Kaisei Gakko, soon to
become the Tokyo University. Though he specialised there
in politics and economics, English literature was a required
subject, and, as already mentioned, he attended the lectures
of Professor Houghton, who laid special stress on Shake-
speare. Tsubouchi *s private reading consisted largely of
Lytton, Scott, and Dickens, and as early as 1879 he made
a free translation of part of The Bride of Lammermoor.
This version was published in the following year under the
name of Tachibana Kenzo, Tsubouchi being as yet unknown
to the public. In 1881 Tsubouchi and Takata Sanae col-
( 107 )
laborated in a prose version of The Lady of the Laki , winch
was published in 1884 under the signature of Hat tori Seiichi.
Tsubouchi had gone down from the Tokyo I diversity in tin-
previous year, and his graduation thesis, "On the Style of
the Novel ", appeared pseudonymously in the Journal <>t tin
Mtiji Society] it was incorporated in the Becond volume of
his book, The Spirit of the Novel,4 which came out in 1886.
The book had begun to be published in parts in the previous
year, in which his translation of Lytton's Rienzi also
appeared. The principles laid down were nothing more than
the common creed of realism, but the book marks a turning-
point in Japanese fiction by repudiating the old view of the
novel as mere light distraction, and by insisting that it
should satisfy the standards of art. Although bis own first
attempt at novel-writing, made about this time, cannot be
-aid to approach realisation of his ideals, the principles
propounded in his theoretical work had no little influence
on subsequent novelists in Japan. He made several other
attempts to put his precepts into practice, in the years
immediately following his maiden effort : some of his novels
show the influence of Hasegawa Futabatei, who was then
popularising in Japan, by translation and creative work, the
realistic tendency of the Russian novel of that time. Before
long, however, Tsubouchi gave up writing novels, as his
interest in original authorship had become concentrated on
historical drama; and it was in this field that his best
creative work was written. Before entering on this stag! of
his life, however, we must see how, in the meantime,
Shakespeare 's plays were being increasingly introduced to
the Japanese public.
Tsubouchi's translation of Julius Csssar had been finished
in 1883 and published in the following year. It was his first
4 For the material of this hook he was partly indebted to
Bain's Rhetoric. Fenollosa's lectures on art (given BDOUl that
time in Tokyo), and various hooks that he had read in the
University library as a student; l>ut he worked out the whole
plan himself, and his debt to these sources seems to have b
verv slight.
( 108 )
translation of a Shakespearian play, and at the time he had
no thought of producing a complete series : it had been quite
an isolated undertaking, suggested in part by the dominant
interest of the time in politics, seen in the great vogue of
political novels, translated and original; and it was an
extremely free version, largely in the style of Japanese ballad
drama, and intended not for the stage but for popular
reading. (Since 1883, translations from Lamb's Tales had
been appearing in great numbers ; but these, with Shakes-
pearian adaptations, will be discussed later.) In 1885
Tsubouchi's version of the first four scenes of Hamlet, Act I,
appeared in a periodical called Child Gakujutsu Zasshi. In
1888 a very free version of Coriolanus, by Itakura Kotaro,
was published under the title of Goketsu Isse no Kagami
(The Mirror of a Hero's Life). Literature ran in the trans-
lator's family, but he was at this time only a student at the
Keio Gijuku, a college founded by the Fukuzawa already
mentioned, and the task of translating the play had been
delegated to him by a superior too busy to discharge the
publisher's commission. The book appeared, however, under
Itakura's name, with Ono mentioned as reviser; but the
revision seems to have been nominal, for the liberties taken
by the translator go unreproved, even his redivision of the
play into seven acts. Itakura prefixes to his version a short
life of Shakespeare and hints on how to read and understand
the play. At the outset he declares his chief motive in
translating the play to be the improvement of the Japanese
stage — thus echoing, if not anticipating, Dr. Tsubouchi.
This avowed purpose is supported in the special introduction
written by Ichikawa Danshu, a noted actor of those days,
who avers that, as he turned the pages he felt as if the play
were being performed before his eyes.
In 1888 a version of The Comedy of Errors appeared. The
translator, Watanabe Osamu, was a conscientious student of
Shakespeare and the possessor of a fine style. His preface
shows that he had fully recognised the difficulty of his task :
in the first place, between the genius of the Japanese and
that of the English language there was such a difference that
( 109 )
though the plain meaning of the English sentences tnighl tx
conveyed, their subtle implications and mysfc rious charm
would almost certainly escape; and secondly, Dot only v.
Shakespeare's language three hundred years old, bul also.
in many placs, scholars disagri ed about the coned reading.
The translator had done his besl under these handicaps;
and, though he had been obliged to reduce Shakesp
verse to colloquial prose, had at least taken no liberties with
the development of the plot or the divisions of the play.
that the original construction mighl plainly appear. His
translation is as intelligent as his preface leads one to expect,
and in view of its excellent colloquial style we may regard
the work as an artistic triumph. The title, Kyoka SuigeUu,
means literally " Flowers in a mirror, and the moon in the
water ". YVatanabe tells us that it was suggested bj
friend; it is a good equivalent of the original: flow<
reflected in a mirror are often mistaken for real ones, and
the moon in the water is often represented in Eastern art
as the object of a monkey's vain grasp.
YVatanabe says in his preface that this is not his only
Shakespearian translation, but the others do not seem to
have been published.
In the same year, 1888, Wada Mankichi's version of Att't
Well that Ends Well appeared in print; but as the version
is in story form it will be discussed more suitably in tin-
chapter on outline stories and adaptations of Shakespean
plays.
( no )
IV. Direct Translation of Shakespeare : II.
By 1891, Shakespearian studies in Japan had reached the
stage at which fairly full notes on portions of the plays began
to appear. In October, 1891, the trial-scene from The
Merchant of Venice, with translation and notes by Isobe
Yaichiro (to whom fuller reference will be made later),
appeared in the journal of English-studies he edited. About
the same time Professor Tsnbouchi's translation, with notes,
of the first two acts of Macbeth x was printed in a literary
periodical 2 recently founded by him for the College of
Waseda, where in the previous year a department for the
exclusive study of literature had been established. An
impetus was thus given to Shakespearian studies. In 1890,
also, Dr. Tsubouchi had begun his lectures on the dramatist,
first given at his own house. More than seventeen years,
however, intervened between Watanabe's Comedy of Errors
(1888) and the next translation (not adaptation) of a
complete play of Shakespeare's. During that time the chief
interest of Tsubouchi himself had changed to the writing of
historical dramas, though these at least showed Shake-
spearian influence. In 1894 his Kirihitoha was printed in
the Waseda Bungaku,2 i.e., Waseda Journal of Literature.
Two years later it was published in book form, with Maki-
no-Kata, another of his historical plays, the first of a trilogy.
It is the almost unanimous verdict of the critics that
Kirihitoha is the best Japanese drama written in the Meiji
era. Reminiscences of Hamlet have been pointed out, and
ociations with other plays of Shakespeare's may be
found. The end of Act V, scene iv, brings to mind both
II mulct and Macbeth : the scene is laid in the bed-chamber
1 A revision of this, together with his translation of the first
part of II ii inlet, already mentioned, was included in the second
volume of Dr. Tsubouchi's Critical Studies in English Literature,
published in 1902.
2 This periodical, Waseda Bungaku, was discontinued in 1898,
but was revived in 1906 by Shimamura Hogetsu, another Waseda
professor, one of the pioneers of modern drama in Japan.
( 111 )
of Yodo-gimi, widowed consort of Toyotomi Bideyoshi; in
the middle of a conversatioD she sees a ghost, retreats in
alarm, talking wildly like a sleep-walker, and half unwif
tangly stabs an unprincipled parasite.
Of Maki-no-KatQ the anther himself said that vagUC
associations with Lady Macbeth entered into its comp
tion, and Shakespearian memories are faintly stirred l>\
other plays of Tsubouchi's written at this tune. Wh.i!
more important, however, is the general influence <>f
Shakespeare on Tsubouchi's plays, discernible both in thi
construction and in the treatment of their subjects. Like
Shakespeare, Tsubouchi meant his plays t<> he acted; the
two mentioned above were put on the stage somewhal later,
and others were also thought good enough for performance.
In 1899 the degree of Doctor of Letters was conferred
on the scholar dramatist. In the following year his Stud
in Chikamatsu3 appeared, and in the year after that his
History of English Literature. This was :i revised col]
tion of his lectures, printed from time to time for his
students at Waseda. Of more than nine hundred pagi
only fourteen were allotted to Shakespeare, is compared
with thirty-one for Spenser and twenty-one for Milton; hut
this was probably due to Tsubouchi's having a seminar
class for the special study <>f Shakespeare, at Ins own house.
In 1901, also, his old version of Julius Csesar, adapted for
the stage by Hatakeyama Gohei. was performed at the
Meiji Za in Tokyo; and later in the same year wl. mis
to have been the same adaptation wras performed at the
Kado Za in Osaka.
In 190") Dr. Tsubouchi organised a society for the stud)
of the drama and theatrical art: this soon developed i"t<>
the Bungei Kyokai (Literary Association). His activities
in the theatrical world will be dealt with more fully later.
In 1905, too, appeared the first book of a series intended
to supply a complete translation <>f Shakespeare's works,
This enterprise was undertaken by two competent scholars.
3 A society for the study of Chikamatsu was founded under
his "uidance.
( 112 )
Tozawa Masayasu 4 and Asano Wasaburo,5 who had been
fellow students from the time they entered a High School
to the year of their going down from Tokyo University,
1899. Their Shakespearian series opened with Mr. Tozawa's
Hamlet. The Russo-Japanese War was on at the time, and
in their general preface the two friends marvel at the serene
atmosphere in which they have been able to pursue their
peaceful labours. The result, they claim, will mark for later
generations the high tide of the national spirit. To the
intrinsic value of their work, however, they attach less
importance : as the literature of the Elizabethan age rose
to its climax in the second half, so the most flourishing
period of Meiji literature might be expected in ten, twenty,
or even thirty years' time ; and it was for that day that
they were working, to the best of their ability, by introduc-
ing foreign literature. The general preface was followed by
a biographical sketch of Shakespeare, later included in
Asano's History of English Literature (1907). From the
translator's short preface we learn that it was Lafcadio
Hearn who inspired the plan of translating Shakespeare into
Japanese. During a lecture at the Tokyo Imperial Univer-
sity, at which Tozawa was present, Hearn urged his hearers,
" Translate Shakespeare into your daily speech ". The
translator is deeply aware of the difficulty of his task, which
he compares to copying an oil-painting in the style of native
Japanese art.
The introduction to this version of Hamlet begins with
a brief explanation of Hamlet Quartos and the First Folio,
and after discussing the sources of the play goes on to
examine Hamlet's character. The text used for the trans-
lation was Dowden's edition in the Arden Shakespeare ; to
his notes, and those of other scholars, Tozawa acknowledges
4 After many years of service as a High School teacher Mr.
Tozawa is now Principal of the Tokyo School for Foreign
Languages.
W. Asano, whose death in February, 1937, was lamented
in the leading papers, was noted for his many translations of
English literature ; for many years he taught English at a Naval
College. His interest in spiritualism was also well known.
( 113 )
his indebtedness. By this time Dr. Tsubouchi's version of
the first four scenes oi Hamlet, Act I, had already h.
published: the translator highly esteemed it, and,
himself admits, followed the Doctor's wording very closely
in some places.
As many as ten plays had beeD translated by the two
scholars when the scries was discontinued. Choice of pla
they said, depended on their personal inclinations. The
following list gives title, translator, and date of publii
tion : —
Hamlet
T' zawa .
• • •
1905
Romeo and Juliet
•
. . .
* •
Merchant of Venice
Asano
• . .
1906
Othello
Tozawa .
• . .
Lear
•
. .
• •
Much Ado
j>
• . .
1907
Julius Caesar
•
• • •
As You Like It . .
Asano
• • •
1908
Comedy of Errors
Tozawa .
- . .
• |
Twelfth Night . .
Asano
• . .
1 !»()«..
A study-list, prepared by Asano, was appended to the
biographical sketch that followed the general preface in
Tozawa's Hamlet. Since it will give a good idea <»f the
Shakespeare-literature known and appreciated in Japan at
the time, it is reprinted here, with Asano's comments
(translated) : —
(1) Works. — As there are several hundred editions <>f
Shakespeare's works, it is impossible to enumerate them
here. The following editions are generally considered to
be good : —
(a) The Globe Edition, edited by Clark and Wright,
1 vol. (Macmillan). Cheap and accurate; generally
recognised as the standard edition.
{!>) The Temple Shakespeare, edited by Gollan
40 vols. (Dent); a series of lovely hook!'
(c) The Eversley Shakespeare, edited by Herford,
10 vols. (Macmillan).
(d) The Cambridt s akespeare, edited by Wright,
9 vols. (Macmillan).
(e) The II<nrt) Irving Shakespeare, 8 vols. (Blacki
Exquisite illustrations and careful
VOL. XXXVI.
( 114 )
(/) The New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare, edited
by Furness (Lippincott & Kegan Paul). A large-scale
edition, indispensable for Shakespearian scholars. It com-
prises twelve plays (titles given). Each vol. Y9.
(2) Criticism and Biography.— Books are very
numerous and still rapidly multiplying ; we must there-
fore choose carefully. The following two are considered
the best works : —
(a) Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, by Hazlitt
(Bonn's Library).
(b) Lectures and Notes on the Plays of Shakespeare, by
Coleridge (Bohn's Library).
These two books must be read by every student of
Shakespeare. The following are also considered to be
excellent : —
(c) Shakespeare, His Mind and Art, by Dowden (Paul).
(d) Introduction to Shakespeare, by Dowden (Blackie).
(e) Shakespeare, His Life, Art and Character, by
Hudson (Ginn).
(/) Shakespeare's Heroines, by Mrs. Jameson (Bohn's
Library).
(g) Life of Shakespeare, by Sidney Lee (Smith).
(h) Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, by Moulton
(Clarendon Press).
(i) Study of Shakespeare, by Swinburne (Chatto).
(3) Dictionary and Linguistic Study : —
(a) Shakespeare-Lexicon, by Schmidt, 2 vols. (Williams).
Indispensable for Shakespearian scholars.
(b) Shakespearian Grammer, by Abbott, is the best
book of its kind.
(4) Commentary. — Here again, the books are so
numerous that right choice is often difficult.
(a) Shakespeare's Plays, edited by Deighton, 22 vols.
(Macmillan). Full notes, making this edition very suitable
for beginners.
(b) Shakespeare's Plays, edited by Hunter, 35 vols.
(Longman).
(c) The Pitt Press Shakespeare for Schools, edited by
Verity (Cambridge University Press).
(d) Select Plays of Shakespeare, edited by Clark and
Write (Clarendon Press).
(e) The School Edition of Shakespeare, edited by
Hudson, 23 vols. (Ginn).
Twelfth Night, the last of the ten translated plays,
appeared in the November of 1909, and in the following
( 115 )
month Dr. Tsubouchi's version of Hamlet was published by
the Waseda University Press as thc tirst volume o! his
translations of seled plays of Shakespeare's a series later
extended to include the Poet's complete works. In March,
1909, there had appeared a translation ,,f Othello, with full
notes, bySuganoTokusuke;a work of such merit that when,
in 1925, Professor Ichikawa published bis nun notes on the
play, he expressed in his preface his warn, appreciation of
Sugano's scholarship, and regretted that death had robh
the world of other fruits of it ; Otht llo was re-issued, *
years ago, through the good offices of Sugano's old friend
Sawamura Torajiro, Assistant Professor in the Imperial
University of Tokyo. In March. 1909, also, the second
volume of Dr. Toyama Masakazu's work was posthumously
published, including his experimental version of Hamlet,
broken off at Act III, scene ii, 1. 405. In 1910
Hakuu's6 translation of part of .1 Midsummer Nig)
Dream was printed in the Teikoku Bungaku, a magazine
closely associated with the College of Letters of Tokyo
Imperial University. This was the first published Jap
version of the play: Kawashima's translation, made more
than twenty years before, was never printed.
Whereas, however, the versions mentioned above w<
isolated examples by different hands, I),. Tsubouch
Hamlet was quickly followed by his translations of Other
plays of Shakespeare's, until by 1928, the year of the <
Earthquake in Tokyo and its neighbourhood, twenty ha 1
been published, completing the series of seled plays he I
originally intended.7 But neither he nor the \\ laUnivi
sity Press was content to stop here : the plan of translating
select plays was extended to include all th< Poet1 writing
and in the short space of 1928 28 the r. si of Shakesp
works, including his non-dramatic poetry, were given to the
Japanese reading-public in Dr. Tsubouchi's translation. In
6 Mr. Urase is now a lecturer on English literature at the
Fukuoka High School.
The titles of these translated pi ad of the others in
the extended series, are given, with date of pul
bibliography at the end of this book.
( 116 )
December, 1928, the translator's Introduction to the Study
of Shakespeare (written in Japanese) was published, a most
useful and convenient companion to the complete series. In
September, 1933, a revised edition of the whole series began
to appear, and Dr. Tsubouchi had almost accomplished the
laborious task of revision before his death. This took place
rather suddenly, in the morning of February 28, 1935, at
his Atami villa facing the sea and sheltered by high
mountains at the back. He was nearly seventy-six.
The preface to the revised version of Hamlet gives a fair
idea of Dr. Tsubouchi's general aim in making the revision :
in writing the original versions he had intended to give a
new turn to the dialogue of the old Japanese drama, but
as thoroughly colloquial dialogue on the stage was out of
the question in those days, he had kept rather to the old
style, for which he had been criticised ; in revising, how-
ever, he had sought to change archaism into modern
colloquial Japanese, so that in some passages the style was
completely transformed.
In writing some of the original versions Dr. Tsubouchi
seems to have consulted Deighton's edition, in particular,
for explanatory notes; but in revising Hamlet he took
advantage of the available results of the most advanced
Shakespearian studies accomplished since both abroad and
in Japan ; his preface says in the latter connection that not
only have Dr. Ichikawa's and Mr. Tsuzuki's 8 notes been
made use of for the revision, but also a copy of the old
version of Hamlet with Dr. Saito's manuscript notes was
borrowed from him for consultation. In the revision of the
other plays, too, it may be assumed that similar care was
taken to consult the latest authorities, both native and
foreign.
Dr. Tsubouchi's chief motive in translating Shakespeare's
plays was to put them on the Japanese stage, and thus, at
the same time, improve it. Hence his versions differed in
aim from those of, say, Tozawa and Asano, whose point of
8 Mr. Tsuzuki Tosaku is one of the ablest English scholars the
Aoyama Gakuin has produced. He is now Professor of English
in the Preparatory Course of the Imperial University of Hokkaido.
( 117 )
view was scholastic. Dr. Tsubouchi's intention is reflected
not only in his style but also in the stage-directions, winch
are often far more elaborate than those in many English
editions, to say nothing of the original plaj II
latcd Shakespeare avowedly for those who could not read
him in English.
Though we shall have occasion to i<t urn to Dr. Tsuhouchi
in the chapter discussing Shakespeare's relation to the
Japanese stage, it will he more convenient to trace here the
development of his theory of translation. In the last chapter
of his Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare, devoted to
this subject, he describes five stages of development.
In his first version of Julius Csesar (1884) the styl<
mainly that of the Japanese ballad-drama : this was the
first stage. When, a dozen years later, he was publishing
his lectures on literature in the Waseda Journal, his
immediate aim was the instruction of his students, so ti
his rendering of Shakespeare (with notes) was as far as
possible a word-for-word translation9; and though it was in
prose, he was influenced by the contemporary revival of the
Japanese classics, and unconsciously inclined in his transla-
tion to the elegant style. This was the second stag
Next came the period when he was translating Shake-
speare with a view to actual performant In 1909 he
translated part of Hamlet for experimental performance by
the members of the Bungei Kyokai, (Ik literary association
of which he was the leader. By this time he had become
confirmed in his belief that a translation of any play should
be judged in the light of its presentability in the theatre;
but the influence of the old drama on him was still strong
enough to cause an unconscious leaning toward- the archaic
style, and he could not free himself from the diction of the
Tio play. This was the third stage.
When Dr. Tsubouehi was making an experiment trans-
lation of Macbeth, in an eleganl style, someone drew his
attention to the words of Lafcadio Hearn. quoted earlier in
9 This version of Hamlet appeared In Nos. 7, I ' i
of the new series of the Waseda Journal of Lit rature, in l-
( 118 )
these pages in another connection, the purport of which
was that for anyone wishing to translate Shakespeare the
colloquial was the only adequate style. But Dr. Tsubouchi
was not immediately induced to change his theory, and,
though he was already modifying his style to some extent,
did not abandon literary diction. This was a period of
semi-literary, semi-colloquial style; and it was during this
fourth stage that his versions of Ha7nlet, Romeo and Juliet,
and Othello were written. His convictions at this time were
based on the nature of Shakespeare's own language : he
observed that the plays consisted of a subtle mixture of verse
and prose, poetic and colloquial diction ; and in order to
effect in his translations a smooth blend of two different
styles he chose for colloquial passages the usage of the past,
and for literary passages drew from comparatively modern
diction. But he himself was not satisfied with the result,
and in his Lear (1912) increased the amount of colloquialism
— not the colloquialism of the past, however, as during the
fourth period, but a colloquialism that he tried to bring
nearer contemporary usage. In translating Julius Csesar in
1913 he increased still more the proportion of colloquialism;
and when his version was performed, he realised the full
truth of Hearn's words. This was the fifth stage, to the
early days of which belong five versions : The Merchant of
Venice, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, A Midsummer
Night's Dream, and Macbeth.
The fifth stage brought to completion, in 1923, the series
of twenty select plays, and further experience strengthened
Dr. Tsubouchi 's convictions about the use of colloquialism.
Some explanation is needed, however, of what he meant by
colloquialism, for he took the term in a rather wide sense.
He declared, and his practice shows, that by colloquialism
he did not mean the contemporary language actually spoken
by any particular class of people; he used words both old
and new, elegant and vulgar, native and exotic, so long as
they conformed to the grammar of colloquial Japanese in
the ordinary sense of the term and could be understood by
the average person by sound alone. A large vocabulary
was indispensable for rendering Shakespeare's rich language,
( 119 )
and colloquialism in the special sense just defined could
fully meet the need.
Dr. Tsubouchi came to this conclusion after long
experience as a Shakespearian translator. He did not spare
himself in his conscientious progress towards bis ideal. Mr.
Kawatake Shigetoshi, the present director of the Waseda
Museum of Theatrical Art, and one of Dr. Tsubouchi's most
prominent disciples, tells us m the April, l'.t.T), number of
the Shad Fukko (Shakespeari Revival*0) that his master
had no assistant in his labours as a translator, read his proofs
himself, and even prepared with his own hand the clean
copy of his drafts. He used to jot down tentative render-
ings on odd scraps of paper, revise them, and make a fair
copy, in the course of writing which he continued his
revision; he then went carefully over the fair copy and made
various improvements before sending it to the printer.
Further revising was done on the first proofs; tin second
proof also was touched up; and so the process went on,
until, after several proofs — usually four, but sometimes six
or more — had been carefully worked over, the final form
was reached.
While Dr. Tsubouchi's complete translation of Shake-
speare was in progress, versions of the plays by other hands
were appearing. One of the most noteworthy was Rfori
Ogai's translation of Macbeth. Dr. Mori was an army
surgeon and one of the finest men of letters Japan has ever
had. He was very well read in German literature, and
published an excellent translation of Goethe's P it;
Macbeth, his only Shakespearian translation, is in the Ban
thoroughly modern colloquial style. Kume Masao, on<
the leading novelists of present-day Japan, who was Benl
a special correspondent to the Coronation of I VI, had
published between January, 1915, and April. L916, transla-
tions of three plays, Romeo and Jvlit I. Hamlt t, and Otht Uo.
Osanai Kaoru, an enthusiastic inn in the Japan*
theatre, translated Othello (1925) and Tin M
Venice (1926). Kume and Osanai, two of the " uni\ ■
10 This is the title of a scries i ihlets issued fa
the revised edition of Dr. Tsubouchi's translation of Shaki
( 120 )
wits" of modern Japan, made a special study of English
literature during their student days at the Imperial Univer-
sity of Tokyo.
Since the completion (1928) of Dr. Tsubouchi's first
series, also many good renderings of Shakespearian plays
have been published by other writers. The third volume of
the Shinchosha " World Literature " series, issued in 1929,
consisted of versions of six plays — Hamlet, Julius Csesar,
The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Two Gentlemen of
Verona, and Romeo and Juliet — by Yokoyama Yusaku, at
that time Professor of English Literature at Waseda. About
five months later, in the same year, the third volume of a
series issued by the " World Drama " Publishing Association
came out, containing versions of seven plays, including
Othello and The Merchant of Venice, by Osanai Kaoru,
which had been first published, as we have seen, a few years
earlier. The other plays, and their translators, were : A
Midsummer Night's Dream and Hainlet, Sato Tokuji ;
Antony and Cleopatra and Macbeth, Izumi Takeshi ; and
Romeo and Juliet, Kitamura Kihachi. The repeated titles
will help to show which of Shakespeare's plays have been
most popular in Japan of recent years.
The version of Julius Csesar by Mr. T. Sawamura,
Assistant Professor in the Imperial University of Tokyo,
came out in a different form and had a different purpose.
The translation, published in January, 1933, as the first of
an intended series by the same hand, is printed opposite the
English text, with linguistic notes in the margins; for, Mr.
Sawamura says in his preface, the book is meant chiefly to
promote a true appreciation of the original. It was followed
by similar editions of several other plays, but a further
remark on this series will be included more appropriately
in the section of " Commentaries " in another chapter.
In April, 1933, Mr. Honda Kensho's version of Hamlet
appeared. The translator, one of the most genuine Shake-
spearian scholars in Japan, says in the preface that he
carried out his task in twelve days; which gave him at least
this advantage that in the heat of concentrated energy he
cast petty discretion to the winds and produced a straight-
( 121 )
forward version free from trivial elaboration. In the same
month he published a translation of Romeo and Juliet.
The following year witnessed a characteristic trans]
of Hamlet by Professor Uraguchi Bunji, a veteran Shake-
spearian and a fricn.l of Professor Kittredge.
In May, 1988, a version of Macbeth by Mr. Nogami
Toyoiehiro was issued by tin- [wanami publishing ln<ns,
the first of a scries of twelve selecl plays of the poet t<> be
translated by eighl Japanese scholar-,. Mr. Nogami, the
leading authority on nf> plays, is well read in literature both
Japanese and foreign, and has the command of a perfect
style. He has already translated many works of English
literature, and his hook on the theory and practice of trans-
lation is just out. It is an outgrowth of his long experience
as a translator, of which his Macbeth is a nest significant
fruit; for it makes an epoeh in the history of the translation
of Shakespeare in Japan.11
Mention should he made here, in conclusion, of an early
instance of translation of Shakespeare's non-dramatic poetry.
In 1896 Shimazaki Toson's version of 1< nus and Adonis v.
published in the February number of the Bungaku l\ (The
Realm of Belles-Let t res). It was republished in 1899, form-
ing part of the second volume of tin M< ika Bunko (Library
of the Masters). Toson, who has since become one "f
Japan's greatest novelists, was in those days writing poetry.
His exquisite translation in poetic prose of Shakesp
poem is entitled "Summer (irass'".12
11 Besides these translators there have been others m recent
years who have produced versions of some plays. The read
is referred to the Bibliography at the end of this book.
12 A story entitled "The Captive in ti I '" is included in
Natsukodachi (A Summer Grove), a collection of Yams
Bimyo's writings published in 1888. In »om< Shakes]
bibliographies compiled in Japan this story is given ;is ;i transla
tion of The Rape <>f Lucrece, hut this is a mistake: it is tru<
that the author of the book says in his preface that 1
of Shakespeare's poem he wrote his "Captive in thi I ' in
imitation; but plot and nanus of characters sii<,w Bimj
to be, rather, an adaptation of a tale in Roman history frith
similar theme, related in " Virginia ", one <>f Macaula; ' I
of Ancient Rome, and dramatised by Janw a Sheridan Knon
( 122 )
V. Stories and Adaptations of Shakespeare's Plays.
The foregoing two chapters have dealt with the history
of direct Shakespearian translation in Japan from its
beginnings to the present day. During this period, however,
many of Shakespeare's plays were introduced to the public
as adaptations or in novel or story form, including transla-
tions from Lamb's Tales. Many of these versions were
published as books ; others appeared in periodicals. Together
they are so numerous that in Mr. Yamaguchi's Shakespeare
Bibliography the books, alone, containing one or more
stories from Shakespeare and published before 1928 number
ninety-seven — which includes reprints of books already
listed, but not adaptations. Hence it will be only to the
more important of the stories and adaptations that the
reader's attention is directed in this chapter; and the
adaptations will all be of a definitely Japanised type,
versions with only slight changes being treated as transla-
tions.
We have already seen that " The Strange Affair of the
Flesh of the Bosom ", published in a periodical in 1877, was
a thoroughly Japanised adaptation of The Merchant of
Venice. This was a very early example of its kind ; its
successor, also mentioned before, was a much more elaborate
adaptation of the same play which was put on the stage in
1885 and published in the same year; we shall return to
it when discussing the relation of Shakespeare's plays to
the Japanese stage. In the following year, 1886, Kanagaki
Robun's adaptation of Hamlet 1 appeared in the Tokyo Eiri
Shimbun (Tokyo Graphic); the period is the fourteenth
century, and the scene is laid at Yamagata, an old feudal
1 Mention has already been made of an earlier adaptation of
this play by the same hand, and it was stated that Robun, who
was not an English scholar, probably heard the story from his
journalist friend Fukuchi Ochi, likely source of other Shake-
spearian adaptations, too.
( 123 )
capital in the far north of Japan. Udagawa Bunkai, who
in 1885 made the second adaptation of 77, \/ rchani
Venice, mentioned above, adapted At Yo\ 1 I
for the Osaka Asahi. a leading newspaper; and after him
Jono Saikiku made at least two adaptations, both novels,
one of which, Three Daughters (of Lear), appeared in the
Yamato newspaper in 1890, and the other, a Japanised
Othello, was published in the same columns in 1891.
A novel entitled Taisei Joma Sofuren (a love-story in the
Western manner), was published in Osaka in 1892. Of
the writer, who uses only the pseudonym Chikuyd-eanjin,
nothing is known. The opening pages of this novel, which
are a kind of preface, show the author to have !>•
influenced by Tsubouchi's memorable- work, 77'/, Spirit
the Novel, and contain the statement that some of the
characters have been modelled on those occurring in Shake-
spearian "romances" — a faithful wife made unhappy, a
dutiful but ill-fated son, an able man afflicted with m
fortune. The scene of the book is laid in Osaka : the social
background is that of a time soon after tin- inauguration
of the Imperial Diet. The Shakespearian < are very
faint, and sometimes grievously distort the original. T< D
kichi, for instance, who resembles Hamlet to the extent of
bring a dutiful but ill-fated son. was born of a union between
a German living in Yokohama and a Japanese woman: the
name given to the German, Lytton, may have been Mlggi
by that of the novelist, several of whose books have been
translated into Japanese during the previous decade. Am
the other characters are one or two women wl periem
may remotely recall Hermione. and one or two men bear.
some resemblance to Antonio. What is important here,
however, is not the intrinsic value of th< I. which is
very slight, but the fact that it i-> a ran- exampl
speare's early influence on tin creative literature <>f Japan.
Some adaptations more important than those in Q<
dramatic form appeared soon; but being directly connected
with the stage they will be discussed in the appropri
chapter.
( 124 )
The year 1883, which saw the first Japanese translation
of a complete Shakespearian play, was also the year in which
Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare made their bow in Japanese
dress. In the spring of 1883, fairly faithful translations of
four Tales — The Winter's Tale, As You Like It, The Two
Gentlemen of Verona, and Hamlet — were published under
the general title of " Spring-night Stories " in the Hochi
Shimbun, one of the leading Tokyo papers. The transla-
tion of As You Like It was reprinted the same year in book
form, as No. 1 of a " Pictorial Series of Tales from Shake-
speare ' (which seems to have gone no further). The
translator, who on both occasions gave only his pseudonym,
Suiran, is identified by Mr. Yanagida Izumi 2 with Fujita
Mokichi, a popular author whose usual pseudonym was
Meikaku; for in the preface to a similar version of Cyinbeline
published by the Hochi Shimbun in the following year under
the pseudonym Kyuko (known for certain to be another
of the names used by Fujita) the translator says he con-
tributed the " Spring-night Stories " to the paper. In 1885
the Hochi printed three more Tales — Romeo and Juliet,
Macbeth, and AWs Well that Ends Well — translated by
Kyuko.
A rather free version of Lamb's Merchant of Venice also
came out in 1883. It was entitled Jinniku Shichiire Saiban
(A Lawsuit about a Pledge of Human Flesh) ; the translator
was Inoue Tsutomu. This version immediately took the
public fancy, and was reprinted several times. The author
seems to have had the widest success among the translators
of popular Western literature in the early years of Meiji.
He was the eldest son of Inoue Yoshitake (who wrote under
the name Fumei), one of the first doctors in Japan to
practise vaccination : he had studied medicine under Siebold
at Nagasaki. Tsutomu, born in 1850, was first taught
English by a Dutchman, at the age of six. Later he was
employed at the German consulate in Kobe. For about
1 Mr. Yanagida is the author of a history of Western litera-
ture translated into Japanese during the early years of the Meiji
era, to which work I am indebted for various details, especially
those concerning early translators of Lamb's Tales.
( 125 )
ten years after lssi he lived in Tokyo, holding a post under
the Mciji Government in which his knowledge of foreign
languages made him useful. The rest of his life (he *\\rd
in 1928) was spent chiefly in Kob< . excepl for a stay
America when he was about fifty. In his latter years
seems to have made a hobby of gardening. H< is i
remembered mainly fur his translations of Western st i
largely the result of his Tokyo labours. I lis version <>f
Lamb's Hamlet, published in 1888 under the title of "The
Ghost", was not so popular as his Merchant oj Ven
Besides these two Shakespearian stones he translated
Robinson Crusoe (Part I). Rfore's Utopia, part of Wilkie
Collins's Man and Wife, and. through English, 77/, Arabian
Nights, Les Miscrnhh s, and many of Jules Ven
romances.
The year 18SG was prolific in Shakespearian versions :
Kawashima Keizo's translations of two plays, Romeo and
Juliet and Julius C;rsur. were published in book form ;
Kanagaki Robun's adaptation of Hamlet appeared in a
Tokyo picture-paper; and in addition to at least two
different editions of Inoue's version, first printed m t lu-
previous year, of Lamb's Merchant oj Venice, nine more
Tales, translated with varying degrees of faithfulness by
three separate writers, appeared in the course of the year
for in August the translation by Murakiku-yashi, whose real
name is Nitta Keijiro, of Lamb's Winter's Tali and lf< osuri
for Measure, were published in one volume, and in December
there appeared a collection of six more versions by Shinada
Takichi (see below), as well as Takeuchi Yosojiro's version
of Lamb's Lear.
To Nitta Keijiro, who translated three moiv of ban
Tales in these early years of Mciji, much credit ifl due in
the history of how Shakespeare was popularised in Japan.
He was born at Nitta, a village in the province of bl/u. m
Is.kS. In 1872 his teacher of Chinese classic that the
lad might render great service t<> New .Japan with a know-
ledge of English, and advised him to ham the lang
Nitta did so, and, having a natural linguistic gift, made
quick progress at the various schools he attended; but in
( 126 )
1877, when he was at a commercial school in Tokyo, failing
health obliged him to return home. In October, 1884, he
went back to Tokyo, commissioned to translate an English
legal work : there was urgent need for such translations, as
the Imperial Diet was to be inaugurated in a few years'
time and political Japan was being radically reconstructed.
When Nitta got to Tokyo he realised that he had not a
good enough dictionary at his disposal, and wrote home for
his own. While waiting he read a borrowed book, which
chanced to be Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare ; he found it
interesting, and in five days had translated The Winter's
Tale. He tells us this in a preface to the book containing
this version and Measure for Measure, published in 1886
as mentioned above, and says that Lamb's Tales was a rare
book in Japan at that time. He had translated the story
of Measure for Measure in 1885, when he was again back in
his native village. He also translated three more Tales —
The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, and Timon of
Athens — which all appeared in 1888. It is worth noting that
whereas in Nitta's early translations the style was uniformly
literary, even in dialogue, according to the custom of most
novelists of the day, in the versions of 1888 a small amount
of colloquialism is introduced into the conversations. It
was only a year or two previously that the use of the
colloquial style in novels, not only in dialogue but also in
narrative, had been ventured on by two writers, Hasegawa
Futabatei and Yamada Bimyo : they saw that the prevailing
style in Western novels was the language of daily life, and
were convinced that this ought to be the normal prose style
of any language; and, in fact, gembun-itchi — one style for
both spoken and written language, written style being
imilated to spoken — advocated and practised by these
two novelists, has become substantially the normal style of
modern Japanese prose literature. The change in Nitta's
style, however, is less likely to be the conscious application
of this revolutionary idea than the result of the general
atmosphere of the new age. Nitta, who seems never to have
been robust, died in ]891 at the age of thirty-three.
Reference has already been made to a collection of six
( 127 )
versions from Lamb that came out in December, 1886: it
included Hamlet, Lear, The Two Gentlemen l no,
Macbeth, Cymbeline, and Th, Merchant of Venice. The
translations purport to be the work of Shinada Takichi, bu1
.Mr. T. Yamaguchi, compflei of a full bibliography
Shakespeare in Japan, believes the real translator to b i
been Kinoshita Shinzaburo, whose versions of Lamb's
Romeo ami Juliet and /'* rich s were published in tin- follow-
ing year, successively in booklet form, under the pseudonym
of Shunyen-shoshi.3
In December, 1886, also, a translation of another of
Lamb's Talcs was published: Takeuchi Yosojird's K
Lear. Takeuchi was a graduate of tin- Pharmacological
Department of the Kanazawa Medical School. lb- is said
to have fought steadily for ten in tin- cause of total
abstinence and become a persevering Christian, but a funda-
mental restlessness found expression in constant changes of
occupation and address (the latter more than forty times).
He died at Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1927, aged sixty-two. In
his kaleidoscopic life the version of Lamb's 1a nr n
apparently the only literary episode worth mentioning,
though for a time he was a newspaper report* r.
A noteworthy translation that appeared in 1888 was
Wada Mankichi's free version of All's WeU that Endi Well.
Wada, who was later for many years Direct or of the Central
Library attached to the Imperial University of Tokyo. \
then an undergraduate. Though his version, as In- himself
admits, lacks unity of style, it is in good Japan- ind
the mixture of old and new styles, and the ad play ending
given to the story, reflect the transition-mood of the literary
language at that time. This was the year in which four
other Tales appeared in Japanese dress : three by K. Nitta.
and one by T. Inoue, as already stated. In the oexl year
but one, Noguchi Takejiro's translation of Lan
3 It may be noted that the ostensib' tor of 1
Talcs, T. Shinada, was the publisher of the book and of
Kinoshita's version of Pericles. {Pericles was. more accurately!
the work of S. Akashi, Kinoshita's surname having \><
changed.)
( 128 )
of the Shrew appeared as part of the eighth volume of the
Hakubunkan series, The World's Hundred Greatest Men.
This brings us down to 1890. 4 The eighties in Japan were
a decade in which translations and outlines of Western
stories were published in great numbers, in periodicals and
books. In the bibliography appended to Mr. Yanagida's
history of Western literature translated into Japanese in the
early years of Meiji the entries for the twentieth year of
this era, 1887, number 101, of which forty-nine are English
and twenty-nine French. This is the climax of the biblio-
graphy, which covers the period from the first to the twenty-
second year of Meiji, i.e., 1868-89. For the next ten years
translations of English literature and even the taste for it
lapsed in Japan, largely owing to the influence of Conti-
nental literature in the East — as in England during the
seventies and eighties. But this vogue in Japan, though
found among the general reading-public, was confined to
the vanguard of writers ; the study of Shakespeare, and of
English literature in general, was carried on by scholars,
and, as we shall see, commentaries on certain Shakespearian
plays and Lamb's Tales were published, usually accompanied
by text and literal translation.
After the thirtieth year of Meiji, or, roughly, after 1900,
which corresponds to the thirty-third year of the era, trans-
lations of Shakespeare's plays and Lamb's Tales for the
general reading-public began to appear again, in steadily
increasing numbers. The translations from the original
plays have already been dealt with ; the rest of this chapter
will be devoted to some of the more important versions of
the Tales. Free versions of single Tales after this are too
numerous for particular treatment : we must be content to
draw attention to the popularity, from this time onward, of
issuing various series of world's classics, necessarily including
some stories from Shakespeare. The pioneer in this type of
publication was the Fuzambo Popular Series of World's
4 The Lamb versions mentioned in this chapter, with a dozen
more versions based on the Tales, give an almost complete list
of Shakespearian stories published in Japan from their first
appearance in 1883 down to 1890.
( 129 )
Classics, which included versions of Bve of Lamb's roles.
Of these versions Macbi th, The T< ,„,,, 8t, aml Twt ////, Night,
by Sugitani Daisui, were more faithful to Lamb's text than
Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice, by Nakajima
which were more like novels with a great deal of dialogue.
The stories, grouped according to their translators, formed
two volumes of the series, both appearing in L908.
In July, 1904, a book was published that is well worth
our attention. It consists of faithful translations of ten of
Lamb's Tales, with some marginal notes.5 The translator,
Mr. Komatsu Takeharu, says in his preface that although
Lamb's Tales were written for children, especially girls, his
translations are intended for the general reading public of
Japan, where the average man's knowledge of Shakespeare
is still very rudimentary. Mr. Komatsu modestly descril
himself as a voice crying in the wilderness, heralding a
greater comer; for he has heard that the plan of translating
the original plays of Shakespeare is to be realised by his
friends and seniors; he probably refers to the collaboration
of Tozawa and Asano, the first fruit of which appeared in
the following year. Mr. Komatsu expresses his tndebtedn(
to three lecturers at the College of Letters of Tokyo Imperial
University. They are Natsume Soseki,8 Ueda Ryuson,' and
Arthur Lloyd, each of whom wrote a few introductory woi
for his former student : Soseki's happy idea was to pick ten
short passages from the plays and sum up the sentimenl of
each in a Japanese hakku of seventeen syllables.
Mr. Komatsu's book deserved these forewords by eminent
scholars. It is divided into two groups, the first consist ing
of five tragedies (Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Macbi th.
Hamlet), translated in a literary style, and th< ml of
five comedies (As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Tempi tt,
5
The first edition was published in 1904 by the Hit
Yurindo; the book was republished in 1907 by the Hakubunkan.
8 Mention of his Shakespeare readings will be made m th«-
next chapter. He afterwards became one of the gr<
novelists Japan has ever had.
r Afterwards Professor of English Literature in the Em]
University of Kyoto.
VOL. XXXVI. 9
( 130 )
The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale), rendered in
a colloquial style. Besides taking pains over his style, the
translator shows his zeal and thoroughness in various supple-
mentary aids to the reader : he translates Lamb's preface,
gives brief explanations of the plays whose stories are
included in his book, lists the chief characters in them, and
supplies lives of Charles and Mary Lamb and of Shakespeare.
Mr. Komatsu also translated Quiller-Couch's stories from
Shakespeare's historical plays. The translation appeared in
1914.
In 1907 there appeared a metrical version of the story
of The Merchant of Venice, by a young man named Tomi-
kashi Kanjiro. The version is in ballad style and consists
of 132 four-line stanzas : its interest lies less in its literary
merit, which is not very great, than in its being a curious
and presumably unique instance of a sustained metrical
version in the history of translated Shakespearian stories in
Japan.8 A passage in the preface shows that Tomikashi
knew something of Tolstoy's criticism of Shakespeare ; but
his belief in the poet's greatness remains unshaken, and he
declares that his motive in making the version is to let the
ordinary public get an idea of Shakespeare's charm.
Of the numerous Japanese versions of Shakespearian
stories based to varying extents on Lamb two merit special
attention. They contain translations of all twenty Tales,
and are quite recent. The second series of " Stories of
Masterpieces " in the People's Library appeared in 1927 : it
included Gulliver's Travels in the version of Nogami Toyoi-
chiro, whom we have already mentioned in the previous
chapter, and Lamb's Tales in the version of Hirata Toku-
boku, a veteran English-scholar and Elian. The more recent
8 Shimazaki Toson's translation of Venus and Adonis,
already mentioned, is in the style of the Japanese ballad drama,
a sort of poetical prose, the nature of which has been explained
in a footnote to Chap. III. Dr. Tsubouchi's rendering of
Shakespeare's non-dramatic poetry is also in prose; for although
the translation follows the text line by line, still the number of
syllables is not counted, nor is the version characterised with
poetic rhythm.
( 131 )
translation of the Tales (1982), with Lamb's preface, by
Nogami Yayoiko, wife of -Mr. Nogami mentioned aboi
worthy of particular notice, for the translator, a diflcemil
appreciator of English literature, is the foremost won
novelist of present-day Japan.
By the side of these Shakespearian stories in Jap
dress, notes on Lamb's Tales appeared in greal numbers.
They were usually accompanied by translations for the con-
venience of readers of the English text. Some of th<
commentaries are the work of genuine scholars; their
separate treatment, however, lies outside the scope of this
little book, and we must proceed to a g A survey of
Shakespearian exegesis in Japan.
( 132 )
VI. Commentaries; Biographical and Critical Studies.
1. Commentaries.
It has already been said that by 1891 the study of
Shakespeare in Japan had reached the stage at which com-
mentaries by native scholars began to be issued. In that
year there were published two sets of notes on parts of
certain plays, with corresponding translations. One set —
notes on, and translation of, the first two acts of Macbeth,
by Dr. Tsubouchi — was printed in the Waseda Journal of
Literature.1 The translation was in literary style, with
notes, intended to help young students, following every
sentence or passage. The cautious preface is worth quoting.
Tsubouchi says there are two ways of writing notes : one is
to explain the language and diction with reference to
rhetorical value ; the other is to give a critical interpretation
of the ideals the interpreter thinks are expressed in the play.
At first he inclined to the latter method, but reflection drew
him to the former : Shakespeare is closely akin to Nature,
so that the spiritual interpretation of his plays can pursue
an infinite variety of methods, according to the disposition
and general cultivation of the interpreter. Later in the same
preface Dr. Tsubouchi compares Shakespeare and Chika-
matsu, saying : "If Chikamatsu were a jewel the size of a
finger-tip, Shakespeare would be one as big as a fist; the
difference between them appears to be one of quantity, not
of quality, and even if there is a difference in quality the
two jewels are equally the product of Nature, not of human
artifice." Here a word of comment may not be superfluous;
for, if we are to use the metaphor of jewels, some critics
think that the two differ in kind : although tragic grandeur
1 Tsubouchi 's free translation of Julius Csesar, published in
book form in 1884, and his version of the greater part of Hamlet,
Act I, appearing in the Chud Gakujutsu Zasshi of the following
year, were not annotated.
( 133 )
does not belong to Chikamatsu's genius, he is the creator ol
a tragic world of pathos.
The other commentary appearing in 1891 was an editi
of the trial-scene in The Merchant of Venict , with translati
and notes by Isobe Yaichiro, an enthusiast ic English-a holar ;
at the time he was presidenl <>f the Kokumin Eigakkai, an
association thai conducted a large private school for teacbJ
English. J. M. Dixon, then Professor of English Literature
in the Imperial University of Tokyo, and \\. |{. Chamberlain,
Professor Emeritus of the same University, each wrote
words in. encouragement of Isobe's enterprise in editing and
annotating for Japanese students some of the masterpie
of English poetry. In his preface [sobe declares himself
indebted to the notes of Rolfe, Hunter, and Wright, and
especially to Deighton's, just appearing. Abbott's Shake-
ipearian Grammar and Schmidt's Leoricon were consulted.
Isobe makes acknowledgments, also, to a Japanese authority .
Inoue Jukichi, at that time a high-school teacher and la1
well known to English-students as a lexicographer.
In 1892 there appeared a similar work but this time B
whole play, Julius Caesar, translated and annotated by i ikura
Motozumi, with the help of Ota Sukenori and an Ameri
teacher named Wells. In both this and the preceding work.
however, as the prefaces admit, the immediate aim was not
to give a translation in good Japanese, but only to
comprehension of the general sense; thus the versions were
of a different style from Dr. Tsubouchi's mentioned above.
In 1892, also, full notes to Hamlet by Mr. Mural a Viiji began
to appear in the Nippon Eigakv Shiruhi (New M oe for
English-studies), just launched by Mr. Ifasuda Tdnosuke,
able scholar.2
When Natsume Soseki was lecturing on English literature
2 In Nos. 1—5, 17—20 (Aug. 28, 1882 Jan. 18, i-
this journal there appeared the notes to Hamlet, A.t I. - • I
and part of Scene II; after an interval the Botes were continued,
from No. 38. Mr. Murata, formerly on the staff of the First
High School for many years, is now principal of the Seisokll B
Gakko, a large private institution for teaching English, founded
by Saito Hidesaburo, a famous authority on English grammar.
( 134 )
in the Imperial University of Tokyo he read several plays of
Shakespeare's with his classes ; and, fortunately, at least part
of his comments, including those on Othello, read with his
class in 1905, have been preserved by Mr. T. Nogami,
mentioned before, who published them in 1930. Mr.
Nogami was an attentive student at Soseki's lectures; he
took notes in CasselFs pocket-edition of the play, to aid
his memory, and with no thought of publication ; but
Soseki's insight and originality are manifest even in these
jottings. For example, his comment on Iago's words3
(IV, i, 178-80, Arden edn.) to Othello was to this effect: —
" Will Othello, in his present position (1) become more
jealous if Cassio behaves to Desdemona more tenderly, or
( _' ) suffer more if Cassio treats her negligently ? A nice
point of psychology. Shakespeare chose the second situa-
tion, but in my opinion the other is better, to feed Othello's
jealousy. The first situation makes Othello hate Desde-
mona; the second makes him hate Cassio."
Again, giving " prudent " as the equivalent of " wise '
in Iago's words to his wife : " Be wise, and get you home '
(V, ii, 221), Soseki offers his theory of dramatic literature : —
" To be ' wise ' as the world accounts wisdom demands
keeping one's own counsel on such occasions. If Emilia
were living among us, she would be called a fool : for by
keeping her own counsel she could save her life. But
characters in the drama are often fools in the world of
practical life. The drama purifies the affairs of real life,
and then passes judgment. What we observe in ten years
of real life, it condenses into a single evening in the theatre.
Hence real life and the stage are two different things. A
play is interesting because it is disinterested."
In ](MY.) a Japanese edition of Othello, with translation
and full critical notes by Sugano Tokusuke, was published,
as recorded earlier in these pages. Sugano's preface quotes
Hudson's enthusiastic words about Shakespeare: —
3 " Yours, by this hand : and to see how he prizes the
ilish woman your wife! she gave it [the handkerchief] him,
and he hath given it his whore."
( 135 )
•• There can he no extravagance in Baying thai to all
who speak the English language his genius had made the
world better worth living in, and life a nobler and diviner
thing. And even among those who do not speak the tongue
that Shakespeare spoke, large numbers are studying the
English language mainly for the purpose of being at home
with him."
This applies to Sugano himself, for, the preface con-
tinues, one of the two books that taught him the pleasure
of reading was T. Inou£'s translation of Lamb's Merchant
of Venice* He was then a primary-school boy ; more than
ten years later, in Tokyo, the reading of Shakespearian
extracts in Swinton's Studies in English Literature became
the turning-point in his career. He discontinued his studies
in economics, his chief subject, to have more time for
English : and his enthusiasm waxed so strong that he went
to America, where he spent four years, first getting a
thorough knowledge of the language at a high-school, and
then making a special study of English literature at the
Bethany College in West Virginia. On his way home he
spent a few months in England : he visited Stratford-on-
Avon, and in London saw Othello played by Lewis Waller's
company. This was his immediate motive for translating
and annotating the play on his return to Japan, where he
was appointed lecturer on English literature at Waseda
University. His version is in good Japanese, yet with the
words carefully chosen so as to keep fairly close to the
original expression. The notes are on the whole very cl<
and accurate, and are enriched with persona] impressions
and interpretations, often evincing profound insight. An
imple is his comment on the character of Desdemona : —
•' Desdemona's sad fate cannot but inspire in us the
same feeling as in Johnson and Halliwell. Hut what is mi
to be dreaded in calamity is its withering and depraving
effect on the heart: and though, of all that are born to ill
fate, Desdemona was the most unfortunate, she kepi her
purity and warmth of heart unaffected in misfortune, and
4 The other was a collection of old heroic stories of China.
( 136 )
offered boundless love to him that would take her life ; and
to be able to do this — is it not a most blessed state of heart ?
In this sense she died happy, beyond the reach of fate's
malice : and I rejoice in her happiness, and am grateful to
Shakespeare's genius for giving us this character."
Sugano apparently planned to extend his labours to other
plays of Shakespeare's. Indeed, an edition of The Merchant
of Venice that was once his and is now in the possession of
Professor Sawamura is full of his pencilled drafts for a trans-
lation. He died, however, in 1915, aged forty-five, before
his Othello could be followed up. Being in advance of the
average interest in Shakespeare at that time in Japan, his
Othello did not sell well : but, as already said, it was
reprinted in 1928 by Sugano's friend, Professor Sawamura.
By this time various annotated editions of Shakespeare's
plays published abroad had come into use in Japan. The
most popular were the Macmillan editions, with full notes
by Deighton, whose paraphrases and explanations did much
(and still help, within their scope) to promote textual
knowledge of Shakespeare in Japan : Dr. Tsubouchi seems
to have consulted Deighton's notes, especially for his early
translations. Notes of a more fundamental kind, however,
were forthcoming from Dr. Ichikawa, then Assistant Pro-
fessor of English in the Imperial University of Tokyo. An
edition of The Merchant of Venice by him appeared in 1917,
with notes embodying the results of a fundamental study
of English grammar, historically considered, and comparing
Shakespeare's language with present-day English through
numerous quotations. Notes on Macbeth were published in
the following year; and further works of annotation by Dr.
Ichikawa will be referred to a little later.
Between 3916 and 1920 F. A. Lombard, at that time
Professor of English Literature in the Doshisha University,
and Lecturer in the same subject in the Imperial University
of Kyoto, annotated three plays of Shakespeare's, Macbeth
(1916), Lear (1917), and The Merchant of Venice (1920). In
a general " foreword " Professor Lombard says that " it is
in character-creation that the genius of Shakespeare is pre-
( 137 )
eminent ", and that " experience in teaching has from year
to year deepened the conviction that greater emphasis
should be placed on those personal elements which make fur
culture". His conviction is reflected in his notes, by far
the greater part of which arc devoted to exposition of
character. Such notes face text: difficult words and phrases
are explained at the foot of the page.
When, in 1921, the Kenkyusha, a large firm specialising
in books for English-students, began to issue an imposing
series of English classics,5 Professor Ichikawa, who shared
the general editorship with Professor Okakura, annotated
for it, besides other works, the following plays, published
between 1921 and 1931 : Lear, Hamlet, Julius Cxsar, Tin
Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth* Othello, 77,.
Merchant of Venice,6 As You Like It, 1 and 8 Henry IV,
Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. To
these annotations of Shakespearian plays Professor Okakura.
editor of many other books in the series, added in 1928 an
annotated text of Shakespeare's non-dramatic poetry —
Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, and the Sonnt
Each book in the series contains a thoughtful introduction.
In 1931 the same company published an edition of Julius
Csesar with an introduction and copious notes by Mr.
Tsuzuki Tosaku. This work was followed in 1982 by a
similar edition of Hamlet, and Mr. Tsuzuki's researches are
expected to bear still further fruit. Passing reference to
him was made in Chapter IV : he has been engaged— or
rather, engrossed— in the study of Shakespeare's plays for
more than twenty years, and his notes are the result of
painstaking consultation of every available book bearing on
the subject; his Csesar and Hamlet are therefore a kind of
variorum edition, though he occasionally inserts his own
5 This series, which was enlarged five times in ten years, now
comprises one hundred and seventeen volumes, covering English
literature from Chaucer to Hardy. A new series of contemporary
works, and a biographical series, are now bein<: published by the
same company.
6 The notes to these two plays are a revision of the editor's
former notes, supplemented by the results of his latest research.
( 138 )
opinion. In a general preface to the two books Mr. Tsuzuki
explains the relation of his notes to Shakespeare's text and
Dr. Tsubouchi's translation in terms of mathematics : the
text is, as it were, the problem, the translation is the answer,
on the whole correct, and his notes are the process of
calculation. To Hamlet Professor Okakura contributes an
interesting introduction, in which he traces the various inter-
pretations of the play put forward by Coleridge, Hazlitt,
Bradley, and Quiller-Couch.
In 1932 Uraguchi Bunji published his Shakespeare's
" Hamlet " as Seen by the Elizabethan Audience.7 This is
an edition of the play, with detailed critical notes. The
editor was for many years Professor of English in the Tokya
College of Commerce, and now teaches at various colleges
and universities. He studied at Harvard, and says in his
preface that since then he has been engaged in the study of
Shakespeare for twenty years, the last three of which have
been devoted to preparing this annotated Hamlet. His
notes are based not only on his wide and discriminating
reading, but also on the notes he took of Professor
Kittredge's lectures at Harvard, 1913-15, as well as on
frequent correspondence with the professor since. But
Professor Uraguchi had his own principle for unifying this
material, namely his characteristic view of Hamlet, whom
he regards as an admirable young man striving throughout
his short life for the realisation of two noble ideals — political
reform and the purification of love. Professor Uraguchi's
own translation of Hamlet came out in 1935.
In 1933 there appeared an edition of Julius Caesar, with
translation and notes by Professor Sawamura. Attention
has already been drawn to this book and its editor. The
preface makes a happy comparison of the roles played by
translation and commentary in the proper understanding of
a Shakespearian play : commentary is to translation what
an anatomical drawing is to a portrait, or a Baedeker
All the books by Japanese scholars on Shakespeare and
English literature in general that are mentioned in this essay are
in the vernacular, but for convenience their titles are given here
in English.
( 139 )
description of lovely scenery to a painting of it. A combina-
tion of both aids is necessary for full comprehension.
Sawamura's edition, in t lu- same series, of The Merchant oj
Venice followed in 1984, and of Macbeth, Hamlet, and .1
Midsumrm r Night's Dream in succeeding years. In 1982 he
had edited Readings from Shakespeare, with introduction
and notes : the text consisted of extracts from Julius Csssar,
Tin Mi rchant oj Venice, Othello, The Ti mpest, and Hamlet.
Dr. Hosoe Itsuki, professor of English at the Osaka
College of Commerce, and one of Japan's leading authorities
on English grammar, contributed to Shakespearian annota-
tion the results of his study of Csssar (1935), Macbeth (1930),
and The Merchant oj Venice (1988). His dissertation on
Shakespeare's English was printed in Eigo Scinen (The
Rising Generation) between April, 1929, and March, 1931.
2. Biographical and Critical Studies.
As biographical and critical studies, especially of Shake-
speare, are often inseparable, it will be convenient to treat
them in one section. Mention has already been made of
brief lives of the Poet appearing before 1881. An early
instance after this date is found in the Bungaku Zasshi,
Vol. Ill, No. 2 (July, 1887). This magazine was founded
in Osaka in 1885 as organ of the Japanese branch of the
American Chautauqua Society of Literature : its contents
seem to be translated American material. The life of
Shakespeare fills nine of the small pages.
After this, Shakespeare's claim to inclusion in Japanese
encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries of international
or Western scope was seldom ignored. Volume XXII
(published in 1889) of Sonoda Raishiro's V- tc Encyclopt dia,
the Occidental Volume of Yamada Taketaro's JnU rnational
Biographical Dictionary (ls(.>.'5), and Owada Tateki's Lives oj
English and American M<)> oj Letters (published in 1894 as
Vol. IX of the '"National Library ") each contain a short
life of Shakespeare.8 T. Yamada (" Bimyo "), mentioned
earlier as one of the leading novelists of his day, naturally
8 They were all published by the Haknbunkan in Tokyo.
( 140 )
included lives of many Occidental poets in his biographical
dictionary : Shakespeare occupies more than eight double-
columned pages, and Milton six. In Owada's Lives Shake-
speare heads the list of thirty-five men of letters, but gets
only eight pages, against Milton's twelve.
Three years previous to Owada's Lives the first Japanese
history of English (including American) literature had been
issued by the Hakubunkan.9 Shibue Tamotsu, author of
this and other books, led subsequent Japanese historians of
English literature in giving a prominent place to Shake-
speare. But the treatment of Shakespeare in these histories
will form the subject of the following chapter.
In 1901 Nakamura Yoshio's life of Shakespeare had won
the distinction of being the first Japanese book devoted
exclusively to Shakespeare. The author was a graduate of
the Law College in the Imperial University of Tokyo ; his
work was Volume XXI of the " Biographies of Universal
History " series issued by the Hakubunkan. Though the
author says nothing of sources used in compiling the book,
it is evident that first-hand research and original views were
equally outside the scope of his ambition ; but the 132 pages
give an interesting account of the poet's life, with due
attention to the historical background. Nakamura con-
cludes by expressing his appreciation of Shakespeare, who,
he says, was not only representative of his own age but
also penetrated the inner thought of all the ages ; was not
only a prophet of the Elizabethan age, but also a great seer
of life in general ; and a comparison is drawn between
Shakespeare's period and the Meiji era, with regret expressed
that the latter, after more than thirty years, has not yet
produced the looked-for prophet in the new World of letters.
In 1903 Mr. (later Dr.) Shima Bunjiro's Outline History
of the British Drama was published. There are 342 pages
in all, of which Shakespeare occupies sixty-five. In the
interpretation of the four periods of the poet's creative
activity, the author follows Dowden, and the brief explana-
' It was re-issued two years later as a volume in the Haku-
bunkan Popular Educational Series.
( Ul )
tion of each play is largely devoted to the question o! its
source and date.
In 190G a full and careful Shakespeare-bibliography by
Professor Ueda, of the Imperial University of Kyoto,
appeared in Tokusfio Guhitsu (Notes on Hooks), a memorial
edition published by Maruzen & Co. This bibliography,
which begins with the quarto editions of the plays, tills
seventy-three pages.
In 190S a life of Shakespeare by Mr. Sakuma Elajime
(now Professor at Waseda) was issued as Volume XVII of
the M Great Men " series, and another lift-, by Mr. Sasayama
Jun'ichi, appeared in 1910. The preface to the latter book
gives a reference-list : —
Hazlitt : Character* of Shakespeare's Plays,
Coleridge : Lectures and Notes on Shakespean .
Dowden : Shakespeare, His Mind end Art.
„ Introduction to Shakespeare.
This shows that the author was, for his time, at least on
the right track. He also acknowledges indebtedness to
J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Sidney Lee, F. (.. Fleay, and
G. Brandes. The title of his book, literally " Shakespeare,
a new translation *', seems to indicate a biography of the
poet translated from various sources.
In 1910 there also appeared .1 Stiuhf of the Play
M Hamlet ", by Professor Hirata Motokichi, of the Kyoto
High School. This book was the result of careful research.
and was much esteemed by Dr. Tsubouchi. Professor Hirata
says in his preface that his method of studying a masterpiece
is to read it repeatedly, and then, by consulting the most
reliable criticisms and interpretations, to strive to compre-
hend the full meaning of the work, as well as to develop
his own Kunstverstand. Shakespeare's Hamlet, by Kuno
Fischer, was a source of great illumination for him. but still
left him in darkness on many doubtful points. For four
more years he consulted other authorities on the play, and
finally used his own judgment in writing his book. The
sources mentioned include, besides Fischer's study. Tin
New Variorum Shakespeare, edited by Furness, Karl
( 142 )
Werder's Vorlesungen iiher Shakespeare's Hamlet, Richard
Loning's Die Hamlet-Tragodie, and books by Sidney Lee,
Bradley, and Max Wolf. Professor Hirata's study is divided
into six chapters : (1) The Formation of the Play, (2) The
Character of Hamlet, (3) The Behaviour of Hamlet,
(4) Characters around Hamlet, and Shakespeare's Tragedies
in General.10 In the last chapter the author says that such
plays as Lear and Hamlet may be called life-plays or world-
plays, because in them the sublimity and the wretchedness
of this life are both shown to the full, reflecting the true
nature of the world. The book concluded with a quotation
from the preface to the third edition of Dowden's Shake-
speare : " We acquire the same feeling with reference to
Hamlet which we have for Goethe's Faust — that it has to do
with almost the whole of the deeper part of the poet's life
up to the date of its creation." It is perhaps needless to
remark that the tendency in Shakespearian criticism has
since changed : it has left subjective romanticism behind.
Forty years ago, however, Shakespearian criticism in Japan
had caught up with that of the world in general at that time.
Kimura Takataro's Shakespeare's " Hamlet " and its
Oriental Materials (1915) is a booklet that seeks to show the
relation of the " Hamlet legend " to Eastern myths and
literature. The author argues that the scene of Greek
mythology seems to have been, really, the region about the
mouth of the Ganges ; and that since Hamlet appears to
him to be adapted from Greek mythology, its scene must
have been there, too. He then identifies many characters
in the play with figures in Japanese history and literature.
I am not aware, however, that his theory has found any
serious supporters.11
A worthy Japanese memorial of the Shakespeare tercen-
tenary appeared in April, 1916. It was Shakespeare : His
' It should be added that Professor Hirata's quotations from
Hamlet are accompanied by Dr. Tsubouchi's translation.
11 The Ancient History of Japan, Based on a Study of World
History, by the same author, contains in Vol. I (1912) the same
identification of characters in Hamlet with figures in Japanese
tradition.
( H3 )
Life and Works, by a university lecturer who is nmv r
lessor Saito of Tokyo Imperial University. He declares thai
his aim has been to present, .-is accurately as possible, a
general account of the poet's lift- and works, explaining
the latter in their chronological places. Bui although (he
continues) knowledge of the facts of Shakespeare's life, and
of the criticisms of his works and their form, may make a
man learned, the possession of such knowledge does not, of
itself, constitute appreciation of this greal literature. Hence,
as a means of making the reader directly acquainted with
the poet, passages of considerable Length from nearly all his
works are quoted in the book, with the author's translations
(and some notes on difficult words and phrases, at the hack
of the book). Thus the volume may be said to comprise a
life of Shakespeare, outlines and criticisms of his works, and
an anthology. So claims the author in his preface, in which
he expresses his indebtedness to such scholars as Lee,
Bradley, Dowden, Herford, Churton Collins, and John
Lawrence. The last-named was for many years Professor of
English Language and Literature in the Imperial University
of Tokyo, where Saito was one of his ablest students; he
died some six weeks before the publication of the book,
which was dedicated to his memory.
In 1024 Kimura Sdta's translation of the pages on Shake-
speare in Taine's llistoire de la litteratun anglaist was
issued by the publishing department of the " New Village ",ia
as No. 8 of its " Human Documents ".
The following year saw the publication of Dr. I'cda
Seiji's posthumous work, The Shakespearian Stage and it*
History. Dr. Ueda was Professor of German Literature in
the Imperial University of Tokyo; this interesting book is
based on some extra lectures given a tew years before his
death.
In 1926 Mr. Takahara Nobuo's Shah came out,
12 The " New Village " was a kind of Pantisot
members, instead of dreaming from afar of an ideal BOciety in
the New World, left Tokyo and went to live in a rural district
of the old island of Kvushu.
( 144 )
No. 3 of the " World Literature " series issued by the Tobd
Shuppan Sha (Oriental Publishing House). Mr. Takahara,
after graduating at Waseda, where Professors Tsubouchi and
Yokoyama lectured on Shakespeare, studied in America for
five years, attending at Columbia the lectures of Professors
Brander Matthews and Thorndike, and for about a year
(1923-4) travelled in England and on the Continent, making
a study of the European theatre. His chief interest has
always lain in the theatrical art, and the aim of his book
is to bring out clearly Shakespeare's genius as a dramatic
artist.
We have already mentioned Dr. Tsubouchi's Introduction
to the Study of Shakespeare (1928), a booklet supplementary
to the series of his translations of the poet's complete works.
In 1935, soon after his death, a revised edition appeared,
enlarged with the author's own afterthoughts. This " first
door ' to Shakespearian knowledge was meant to lead
straight to advanced study : hence the author not only
traces, with some comment, the whole development of
Shakespearian studies, but also mentions various important
problems connected with the subject, giving the results of
the latest research. The poet is approached from many sides
— linguistic, literary, biographical, theatrical — and the
Bacon, Oxford, and group theories, as well as the problems
of the Sonnets, are explained with judicious comments.
Useful bibliographies are provided for the study of every
phase and problem touched on. The final chapter discusses
various questions concerning Tsubouchi's own translation,
the five stages of which have already been dealt with.
The last of Mr. Abe Takashi's Lectures on the British
Drama (1929) gives the history of the Western presentation
of Shakespeare's plays, down to the present day.
Professor Yokoyama's Studies in Shakespeare (1931) is
a posthumous work compiled by his former teacher Masuda
Tonosuke, himself a veteran English-scholar. Professor
Yokoyama, who translated several plays of Shakespeare's
and wrote a history of English literature, was one of Dr,
Tsubouchi's foremost disciples. After graduating at Waseda
( 145 )
he studied at Harvard, where he attended the lectures of
Professor Kittredge and specialised in the drama and Shake-
speare. On his return his chief energies were devoted to the
service of his alma mater, where he was bood appointed
Professor of English Literature. His Studu s in Shah ap< ■
published two years after his death, contains in compendious
form the results of his studies in the poet's age, life, and
works, with additional chapters on " Shakespeare and
Religion " and " The Shakespearian Stage ". He discerned
in the works of the dramatist's latter years a masculine
optimism and a magnificently wholesome interpretation of
life, and it was in this sense that he expounded Shakespeai
genius to Japanese students.
In 1933 Mr. Honda's Shakespeare and World Literature
appeared, in Iwanami's " World Literature " series. The
author says that Shakespeare is not the type of poet thai
spins a purely ideal world from his inner consciousness : he
is a genius who, seeking his material outside himself, clothes
it in flesh and breathes life into it. Tolstoy, however, is
wrong in denying that there is any characterisation in
Shakespeare: Falstaff, for example, is a triumph of pure
creation, and Lady Macbeth was drawn from scanty material
in Holinshed. Mr. Honda, tracing the influence of Seneca
and Plautus on the Elizabethan stage, explains the form of
Shakespeare's romantic drama as the dramatisation of the
centrifugal material of old romance by the centripetal method
of classical drama. He next traces the history <>f Shake-
spearian studies and criticism in various countries, especially
Germany and France, and concludes by saying that though
there is some truth in the criticism of Voltaire. Tolstoy, and
Shaw, Shakespeare is sure to survive it. A time may come
when he will be neglected, but the stream of drama of which
he is the source will continue to flow in different forms in
the world's literature, permeating it more and more deeply.
Mr. Honda's treatise, a pamphlet of only fifty-th]
pages, evinces both fine scholarship and originality.
Tolstoy's opinion that Shakespeare was no friend of the
common people seems unreasonable to Mr. Honda, becai
the poet himself was of the people. He admits that the tone
VOL. XXXVI. 10
( 146 )
of the plays is sometimes vulgar, but points out that this
has not prevented Shakespeare from expressing what is truly
great, and that his age did not fail to appreciate what was
truly great in him. He advances a fresh view about the
unevenness of finish in Shakespeare's plays : some defects of
his earlier plays are usually attributed to the old material
he was working on, and the blemishes of his later plays are
ascribed to the hands that are supposed to have completed
his unfinished work ; but since this is all mere theory, may
we not suggest with equal plausibility that Shakespeare,
like writers of our own day, sometimes scamped his work
when the demands of the stage were pressing, and at other
times had leisure to polish his plays to his satisfaction ?
Professor Doi's Shakespeare, which appeared in 1935 as
a volume in the Kenkyusha series of English and American
literary biographies, is a very helpful and suggestive intro-
duction to more advanced and detailed studies in the poet.
Mr. Honda's Essays on Shakespeare, collected in a book in
1936, are the fruit of the early labours of an able young
scholar who cherishes the hope of writing a Shakespearian
study worthy to be remembered as his life's work.
Two more books published in 1936 remain to be men-
tioned. One is Shakespeare in the Elizabethan Setting, by
Mr. Hagitani Takehiko, a fine sympathetic study of tlie
colourful background of the English romantic drama ; the
other is Florioh " First Fruit es ", by Professor Arundell del
Re, of Taihoku Imperial University. The latter work 13
consists of a facsimile reproduction of the First Fruites, with
an introduction and notes. Professor del Re, an Italian
who studied at Oxford, has unique qualifications for this
editorial task. His illuminating introduction and full notes
throw much new light on John Florio, whose name will
always be associated with Shakespeare's, mainly because of
his famous translation of Montaigne.
13 Vol. Ill, No. 1, of the Memoirs of the Faculty of Litera-
ture and Politics, Taihoku Imperial University, Formosa, Japan.
( U7 )
VII. Shakespeare in Japanesi Bistorh I hj»h
LITERATURE.
The first history of English literature written b\
Japanese appeared, as we have seen, in 1891. It \s;is pub-
lished by the Hakubunkan, a lirm that did much to introduce
various branehes of Western culture into Japan. Shibue*
Tamotsu, the author, wrote other books, including .1 History
of German and French Literature and Inventor* of AH
Nations, issued by the same firm about that time. As
originally written, his history of English literature would
have run to more than a thousand pages, hut he says in a
note at the end that in its published form the book has been
hastily condensed, and he is afraid the proportion <>f pages
allotted to certain writers may be rather inadequate. The
book has no preface to indicate the sources drawn from, but
it seems to owe at least something to Stopford Brooke. Th
are 264 pages in all, which carry the story of English litera-
ture down to Tennyson and include a section of twenty pa
on American literature. Shakespeare gets twenty-three
pages, seventeen of which outline in small print the si ones
of eight plays — Macbeth, Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet,
Othello, A Midsumnu r Night's Dream. A You IJkt H. ■
The Merchant of Venice. In 1898 the book w issued
as Vol. LVIII of the Hakubunkan Popular Educational
Series.
The first edition of Dr. Tsubouchi's history of English
literature (an amplification of his Waseda lectures l) h<>re no
date; a much-enlarged edition of 904 pages appeared in 1901,
The history comes down to the age «>f Tennj ind
Browning. Only fourteen pages are given to Shakespeare,
probably because the author, having a seminar class for the
studv of the Poet, did not wish to go int.. the details <>f this
1 These lectures first appeared in parts in the W J irnal
of Lectures.
( 148 )
special subject in his general lectures. In his book he
recommends Hiram Corsom's Introduction to Shakespeare
and Sidney Lee's Life for further biographical facts, and his
division of the works into four periods shows the influence
of Dowden.
The next history of English literature, which came out
in 1907, was the joint work of Kurihara Motoi and Fujisawa
Shuji. It was published as Vol. CLX of the Hakubunkan
Imperial Encyclopedia. The authors acknowledge their
indebtedness to Saintsbury, Gosse, Garnett, Dowden,
Brooke, Chambers, Tsubouchi, and the Encyclopedia
Britannica, and refer to the lectures 2 of Lafcadio Hearn,
which they attended as students at the Imperial University
of Tokyo. They declare these lectures to have been full
of useful suggestions, and the influence of a stimulating
teacher is visible throughout the book. Of the 314 pages,
just over a dozen are devoted to Shakespeare, and Hearn's
influence is seen, again, in the arrangement : the section,
brief as it is, has an introductory remark on the poet's
myriad-mindedness, his superiority to Euripides in broad
humanity, and the high esteem in which he was held by
Coleridge and Goethe, and then gives details of his life ;
the works are assigned to four periods in the manner of
Dowden ; and in conclusion Shakespeare is extolled as an
immortal genius whose creative power, ranging far and wide
over humanity, penetrated to the unfailing truth of justice
and love.
This book by Hearn's able pupils was meant, the preface
says, for the general public. Another work on the same
subject, published in the same year, was less popular in
appeal. The author, Asano Wasaburo, had been preparing
to write a history of English literature ever since his student
days at Tokyo Imperial University. His book, published
after eight years of study, contains 871 pages on English
literature, 117 on American literature, and fifty-one on
prosody. Except in this third section, every chapter is
2 These lectures given in English were published by the
Hokuseido in recent years — in 1927 a two-volume edition with a
supplement, and in 1930 a revised edition in one volume.
( 149 )
followed by a list of reference-books, and the work m general
has a more scholarly look than any other 01 its kind
previously published in Japan. Good use is made of the
fourteen pages given to Shakespeare, which end with
mention of the gradual deepening of Shakespearian appre-
ciation through Dryden, Johnson, Coleridge, and Bazlitt.
The study-list at the end of the chapter is practically the
same as that by the same author and already quoted in
Chapter IV of the present work. Only the author adds at
the end of the list The Anita Shakespeare, edited by Craig
(Methuen), saying that it is a very good edition, but not
yet complete.
In 1911 there appeared a general historical survey of
English and American literature by T. 1'unahashi, no*
Professor of English Literature in the Ddshisha University,
Kyoto, who was then lecturing at the Aoyama Gakuin in
Tokyo. This history, which was privately printed for his
pupils, was based on his Tokyo lectures, which the present
writer had the privilege of attending in bis student days.
The book was intended as a one-year text-book for students
coming from middle-grade schools. The author's three
aims were: (1) to cultivate the power of literary appi
tion in his reader-pupils by initiating them into the
rudiments of technique; (2) to make them acquainted with
the positions of individual writers in the stream of litera-
ture; (3) to pave the way for direct contact with literary
works. The book is distinguished by its wealth of adequate
quotations from original texts, the happy choice of which
is well exemplified in the Shakespeare Bection. Of the I
pages (in a total of 21?) devoted to Shakespeare, one half
are filled with quotations from the plays, and the pa
are so selected as to afford -ohm notion not only of the
poet's verbal colour and music but also of his view of nature
and life.
Professor S. Kobinata, of the Hiroshima University of
Literature and Science, made a valuable contribution to
Japanese scholarship by publishing, between I •-'■• md L929,
a three-volume history of English literature running to
nearly two thousand pages. The author, who at ten
( 150 )
Hearn's lectures in Tokyo, looks back, in the preface to
his first volume, and marks the great strides made, during
the twenty years and more that have passed since his
student days, in the historical study of English literature
both in Japan and abroad. In his book Shakespeare
occupies twenty-one pages, which are divided as follows :
(1) Shakespeare's Life in Brief; (2) The Three Periods of
his Works ; (3) His Materials and their Sources ; (4) The
Range of his Works : Comedy, Tragedy, Melodrama ; (5) The
Moral Leit-motiv running through his Works ; (6) A
Summary of Criticisms ; (7) Tolstoy's Censure ; (8) Shake-
speare as a Non-dramatic Poet.
Professor Yokoyama's compendious history of English
literature v/as published in 1927. Its 430 pages include
bibliographies at the end of every chapter. The book is
full of suggestions, and amply achieved its author's purpose
— to arouse the reader's interest and encourage him to closer
study of writers, or periods, appealing to his private taste.
In the Shakespeare section, which occupies eight pages, the
author says that unlike Tolstoy, who tried to force his
dogmas on the reader, Shakespeare simply suggested the
meaning and final issues of life. In Renaissance England,
of which it has been said that people then " lived intensely,
thought intensely, and wrote intensely ", nobody lived,
suffered, enjoyed, and expressed, more intensely than
Shakespeare. There are two classes of artists, those that
produce art and those that live through art ; Basho belonged
to the latter group, for he seems to have concentrated more
on living through poetry than on making it ; and Shake-
speare is a superb example of Basho's type. This may be
seen from a careful study of even one play, and conviction
will be deepened by reading his works in chronological
order.
In the same year there also appeared an historical survey
of English literature by Professor Saito, of the Imperial
University of Tokyo. It is based on his lectures at the
university, and traces the whole course of English literature
from Beowulf to The Dynasts, with special reference to the
spirit of the various ages as measured by the relative
( 151 )
ascendancy of law and Ereedt m two principles that, in the
author's opinion, arc the opposing poles oi English
character. But while the author never loses sight of his
theme, regarding the history of literature as being, m
Hettner's words, " die Geschichte der Ideen und ihrer
wissenschaftlichen and kunstlerischen Form* d ". he i are-
fully avoids insufficiency in the space assigned to individual
writers and works. Indeed, for its size the book is even
prodigal in giving pages to Shakespeare and other leading
figures. This policy was sound, however, as the hook was
written for students to many of whom the study of Western
literature was quite new. The author's wide reading is
shown by his inclusion of many writers and works worth
notice but not mentioned even in histories of literature by
English scholars. The marginal notes are illuminating and
suggestive, and the selective bibliography at the end of the
book, covering more than eighty pages of fine print, is very
carefully compiled.
Shakespeare occupies thirty-one of the closely-printed
500 pages of history proper in this hook, and g 1 use is
made of the allowance. In the chronological order given to
the poet's works the author has, on the whole, followed I.
He divides them into four periods, like Dowden, but avoids
the latter's romantic idolatry : he recognises Shakesp
greatness, which may be compared to the sun or Nature
itself; but he is not blind to defects : the Bun has its spots.
and Nature its dead sprays. Shakespeare wrote for th<
playhouse he was attached to, and had the groundlings in
mind : hence a certain card. ssn< ^ and inconsistency arc
seen in some plots and developments of action, some
are melodramatic, and the language is often coarse. Nor
was the poet entirely above the contemporary fashion for
"conceits". He seems, again, to have been averse from
definite principles, and to have thought Bingle-mindedrK
absurd in any form.
After pointing out these defects, however, I lor
Saito goes on to enumerate I qualities thai constitute
the poet's undeniable greatmss. (l) With wonderful
tivity Shakespeare drew freely and boldly on life, natal
( 152 )
and books old and new of many countries ; and not only did
he possess, as Dryden said, " a universal mind, which
comprehended all characters and passions ", but also his
delineation of these was sure and subtle. (2) With this
broad range of vision, he was impartial and healthy in his
view of life and morals. (3) His language, the medium of
his broad philosophy, was extremely pregnant and sugges-
tive, and the flexibility of his genius made him triumphant
alike in tragedy and in comedy. (4) He had genuine skill
in play-construction. — In short, Shakespeare, the creator of
such complete characters as Hamlet, Falstaff, and Iago, of
Juliet, Cleopatra, and Miranda, of Othello and Lear, of Puck,
Ariel, and Caliban; Shakespeare, who upholds moral order
in his four great tragedies, and whose works are full of the
spirit of love for God, man, and nature, seems in his expres-
sion of the infinite variety of human passion, in language
of unfailing aptness, to show the utmost limit attainable
by human powers.
A history of early English literature by Professor Take-
tomo, of the Kansei Gakuin University, was published in
1936, after many years of thoughtful preparation. It covers
the period 670 — 1660, i.e., from Caedmon to Milton. The
preface describes the book as a kind of atlas or guide-book
for young students. The author stands with them on a hill
overlooking the wide realm of English literature : on the
horizon rises the peak of Beowulf ; the river slowly winding
through fields of daisies is The Canterbury Tales ; a large
forest somewhat nearer is The Faerie Queene. In the ocean
of Shakespeare there are many islands, each a world of its
own. Milton is a cloud-capped summit. To emphasise that
literature is a panorama, the "guide-book " is not divided
into chapters, but some headings are given for convenience.
Professor Taketomo possesses high culture and a fine
literary style. His treatment of Shakespeare, in thirty-two
pages, is very interesting and suggestive, even for readers
much more advanced than those for whom the book is
primarily intended. Most of the space is devoted to a
profound analysis of the poet's works, which is at the same
time a convincing interpretation of the poet himself. Pro-
( 158 )
fessor Takemoto finds in Falstaff the most typical exam]
of that expression of the " sympathetic ", the imaginative,
and the real, to which the term " Shakespearian " may be
applied. He agrees with Bradley thai Othello " is drama-
tically the most perfect of the tragedies". As to Lady
Macbeth, he thinks Dr. Bncknill, M.D., was probably right
in his picture of her as " a lady, beautiful and delicate, . . .
instinct with nervous energy, unoppressed by weighl of flesh.
Probably . . . the small sort of woman, whose emotional
fire is the most fierce"; and he imagines her as being, a1
ordinary times, as cheerful as a bird. In his opinion the
one heroine in the world's literature fit to Ik- compared with
Shakespeare's Cleopatra is Homer's Helen. In Cleopatra he
sees Egypt, the East, contrasted with Koine, the West.
Her charm is that of das Weiblicfa itself, and once in the
flames of that furnace the iron heart of warrior Antony is
soft as butter, beyond rescue by millions of soldiers.
Professor Taketomo, who thinks that the happy ending
is not a happy criterion for distinguishing comedy from
tragedy, and holds that the ground of difference must be
sought deeper, in the contents and spirit of the plays, calls
the three plays of the fourth period " reconciliation
comedies'' in the sense that they are comedies developing
from tragic situations, and contrasts them with what he
calls the " problem comedies " (Troilus, All's Well% Measure
for Measure), which show transition from comedy to tragedy.
( 154 )
VIII. Shakespeare on the Stage.
This final chapter surveys the history of the presentation
of Shakespeare's plays on the Japanese stage. The history
falls naturally into three periods. If we disregard the moot
question of Shakepearian influence in a play, mentioned
earlier, performed in Yedo in 1810, the first period begins
with the performance of The Merchant of Venice in 1885 and
ends with the organisation of the Literary Association in
1906. The second period covers the last few years of the
Meiji era and the best part of Taisho, down to the Great
Earthquake of 1923. The third is the period of fifteen years
from 1924 to the present time.
The First Period.
During this period most of the foreign plays, Shake-
speare's and others, that were presented on the Japanese
stage were either adapted or freely altered, as some
Shakespearian plays were, even in England, at the time of
Betterton and D'Avenant. This was all the more natural
in Japan, because the Kabuki tradition was all in all to the
Japanese theatre of those days, and foreign characters
played by Kabuki actors, with strange make-up and an
unpractised style of acting, would have looked ridiculous.
Hence when, in 1885, The Merchant of Venice was first
performed at the Yebisu Theatre in Osaka, it was in a
thoroughly Japanised version with the title All for Money.
Udagawa Bunkai adapted this play (and Macbeth and
Romeo and Juliet). Certain themes in the original, such
as the choice of three caskets and the forfeit of a pound
of flesh, are cleverly taken over, with some modifications;
but the version as a whole, when closely examined, is seen
to be quite alien to Shakespeare.
After 1892 or thereabouts, British and American travel-
ling companies performed some of Shakespeare's plays in
( 155 )
Yokohama, and thus no doubt gave some idea of foreign
acting to those Japanese, such as Dr. Tsubouchi, that v.
earnestly interested in the art of the theatre.
The Merchant of Vi nn e was played by a Kabuki troupe.
Sixteen years later, in 1901, part of Julius Caesar, based on
Tsubouchi's version, was performed in Tokyo by Shimpa
players (the pseudo-classical school then flourishing). The
immediate motive for presenting this play seems to have
been (but not with the translator's complicity) more topic-
mongering than artistic : not a month before, Hoshi Toru,
a political ,; boss ". had been assassinated in the City Hall
of Tokyo, and the producer of the play apparently took
advantage of the sensation caused by this incident. In
1902 an adaptation of King Lear, by Takayasu Gekko, was
performed in Kyoto and Kobe1; the title, Darkness and
Light, was suggested, Takayasu says, by Dowden's Shake-
speare.
In 1903 Othello was produced, in Tokyo, by Kawakami
Otojiro, showman, shimpa actor, and husband of Sada
Yacco, one of the earliest actresses 2 in Japan ; she is
discussed by Gordon Craig in The Theatrt Advancing.
Kawakamrs company had recently come back from its
second foreign tour. The play was declared to be an exact
reproduction of the original; in reality, however, it too was
an adaptation, the scenes being laid in Tokyo or Formosa
as the equivalents of Venice and Cyprus. The names of the
characters were also adapted, as the following list shows —
Muro Washiro, Governor-General of
Formosa, of plebeian birth . . . . Othello, the Moor.
Count Fura Banjo, Minister of Finance Brabantio.
Major Katsu Yoshio . . . . . . Cassio.
Lieutenant Iya Gozo . . . . . . lago.
Rotori Ko, Bank-president . . . . Roderigo.
Tomone . . . . . . . . . • Desdemona.
Omiya . . . . . . . . . . Emilia.
Biwaka, a Geisha-girl . . . . . . Bianca.
1 In the following year the play was revived in Osaka,
Yokohama, and Tokyo.
2 In the Kabuki theatre women's parts are played by men.
( 156 )
The play was redivided into six acts and eleven scenes : —
Act I, Scene 1. The Inner Garden of Fura-Banjd's
Residence.
Scene 2. A Street near Surugadai, Tokyo.
Act II, Scene 1. Council Chamber of the Prime Minister's
Official Residence.
Act III, Scene 1. Quay of a Seaport in Formosa.
Scene 2. An Evening Party at the Governor's
Residence.
Act IV, Scene 1. The Inner Garden of the Governor's
Residence.
Scene 2. Another Part of the Same.
Act V, Scene 1. Reception Room of the Governor's
Residence.
Scene 2. A Bedchamber.
Act VI, Scene 1. A Street outside the City Wall.
Scene 2. A Bedchamber.
Celebrated scenes and passages, such as Othello's
eloquent pleading, the handkerchief intrigue, Desdemona's
willow-song, the tragic climax in the bedchamber, were all
ingeniously naturalized; but the end of the play was quite
altered : before the final curtain, Iago was killed by a volley
fired by Cassio's men. This alteration was quite reason-
able : a Japanese audience of those days expected a play
to have a definite moral purpose, and would not have
tolerated a disregard of obvious poetical justice.
By the end of 1906, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet,
Lear, and Henry IV had been presented, with more or less
of the same kind of treatment, by various companies in
Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and other important cities ; and some
of these plays were revived several times. Kawakami and
his company also presented, in rapid succession, Hamlet,
The Merchant of Venice, and Romeo and Juliet, and their
provincial tours did much to popularise Shakespeare in
Japan.
The Second Period.
The second period began with the founding of the
Literary Association (Bungei Kyokai) in 1906. After its
reorganisation in the following year, the members devoted
( 157 )
themselves to the new dramatic movement, with Dr.
Tsubouchi as their leader. A research department v.
up, modern theatrical practice was studied with keen
interest, and actors and actn Acre brained in a style
divorced from the old tradition. Towards the end "f 1
the trial-scene of The Mi rch<mt 0/ Venice had been privately
performed, unchanged, by way of experiment : the next year
Hamlet, in three acts, was presented to the general public.
Both productions were twice revived a few yean later. The
1911 revival of Hamlet, in particular, marked an important
stage in the development of the new theatre in Japan : the
play was produced in its entirety, and, adaptations except
was the first complete presentation of a Shakespearian play
on the Japanese stage. Dohi's Hamlet is said to have
superb. Unfortunately, the Literary Association was broken
up in 1913; Julius Cseear was its final performance. What-
ever the reasons may have been for dissolving the A
tion, it is clear that there were at least two outside for
assailing it, as it were, on either flank: the old Kahuki
theatre was vigorously holding its own, and a radical
tendency had set in. The collaboration of Osanai Kaoru,
the Gordon Craig of the East, and Sadanji, a noted Kahuki
actor of enterprising spirit, resulted in the founding of the
Theatre Libre (Jiyu Gekijo), which created a tremendous
sensation among the youn^ intellectuals by presenting such
new plays as Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman, Hauptmann's
Lonehf Lives, and Gorki's Lower Depth*.
The Literary Association, the dissolution of which
marked the end of the first half of the second period, split
up into three companies: the Art Theatre, the Club without
a Name, and the Stage Society.3 All three included in their
productions several plays of Shakespeare's, but for the carry-
ing on of the Shakespearian tradition in Japan the Club
without a Name was the most important. It was organised
by veterans of the disbanded Association, and presented
with success Macbeth, Othello, and other plays; but for
want of initiative it was unable to keep abreast of t
3 Geijutsu Za, Mumei Kai, Butai Kyokai.
( 158 )
times, and the death of some central personages resulted
in its dissolution towards the middle of the Taisho era.
Several performances by its members, such as the Hamlet
of Dohi Shunsho, mentioned above, and Togi Tetteki's
Shylock and Polonius, have a permanent place in the history
of the Shakespearian stage in Japan.
Besides the three companies named, the Modern
Dramatic Society and the Literary Theatre 4 helped to
promote the Shakespearian vogue in Japan by producing
several of the poet's plays. These societies too were con-
nected in their origin with the Tsubouchi cult ; for Kamiyama
Sojin, the actor-producer of the Modern Dramatic Society
(and later a famous film-actor at Hollywood), served a period
of apprenticeship with the Literary Association; and
Hayashi Yasushi, who, with Morita Kanya, founded the
Literary Theatre, was once a disciple of Dr. Tsubouchi's.
Thus, in spite of the retirement of the great leader from
actual coaching, much of the seed sown by him fell on fruit-
ful soil ; and the prospects of the Shakespearian stage in
Japan appeared encouraging, when, in 1923, the Great
Earthquake retaught the old lesson of the vanity of human
hopes.
The Third Period.
Yet even in the midst of chaos the spirit of reconstruc-
tion was astir. When, however, New Tokyo rose like a
phoenix from the ashes, its theatrical world believed, mis-
takenly, that Shakespeare's day was over ; and not only he,
but also Ibsen, Hauptmann, and Strindberg, with other
dramatists of the Nineties, had to yield place to such rising
luminaries as Kaiser, Toller, and Pirandello. Furthermore,
when Othello and Julius Csesar were, nevertheless, per-
formed, it was by typically conservative Kabuki actors and
along with the most antiquated of Kabuki plays. The
Tsukiji Little Theatre,5 however, which has been a leading
4 Kindai-geki Kyokai and Bungei Za.
5 Tsukiji Sho Gekijo. The troupe of this theatre has changed
since, but the new company preserves the name of Tsukiji
company.
( 159 )
influence In the new-theatre movement rince the earthquake,
has contributed a great deal to the revival oi S
on the Japanese stage; for though its chief energies have
been directed to producing works by other authors, it I
presented many of his plays too; QOl according to the old
Shakespearian tradition in Japan, but with a sincere wish
establish a new style of producing old plays. The com-
pany's performance of .1 Midsummer Night'i Dream, to
celebrate the completion of Dr. Tsubouchi'fl great transla-
tion in 1928, was particularly successful. e play
produced in collaboration with the New Symphonic Society,
and Mendelssohn's music was admirably combined with
Shakespeare's romantic fancy. Since the inauguration of
the Shakespeare Society of Japan, in 1980, with Dr.
Ichfkawa as President, the Tsukiji company lias annually
performed some of the poet's plays, with conspicuous
success. A memorable production was The Mi try Id
of Windsor. In the spring of 1986 a committee had been
specially formed, consisting of the members of the company's
literary section and of specialists in English literature; and
as a result of more than six months' study the play «
presented in a new version made by them in collaboration.
Besides the Tsukiji Theatre there was also the Globe
Company,6 a kind of Japanese ( )ld Vic, if we may so describe
an organisation that lasted only a few years and was never
very influential; but it had the distinction ..f promptly
introducing into Japan the modern-dress style of prod'
tion associated with the name of Harry Jackson.
Another dramatic association that must be mentioi
here is the Tokyo Amateur Dramatic Club, founded i:
by lovers of the theatre among the foreign residents. S ral
of Shakespeare's plays have been performed, the most recent
being As You Like It, presented in November, I 186. Mr.
H. Ashley Clarke was the producer; the players, headed by
Mr. A. W. Medley, were assisted I.. ral Japanese from
Waseda.
Other amateur performances of Shaki h ive
been got up by various colleges in Tokyo that annually
6 Chikyu Za.
( 160 )
present a dramatic entertainment, public or private. For
example, the Japan Women's University, the English-
literature Department of which has a well-established custom
of this kind, in recent years has given public performances
of Shakespearian plays. In March of this eventful year
(1938) the Department produced Twelfth Night in the Hall
of the Military Club in Tokyo. The present writer had the
opportunity of witnessing the performance, which was a rare
success in every respect. Among the excellent renderings
of the male and female characters by an all-female cast,
that of Sir Toby deserves special mention for its wonderful
expressiveness.
In the half-century and more since Shakespeare was first
consciously introduced into Japan, all his plays, except for
a few very unpopular ones, have been presented at least
once on the Japanese stage ; and such favourites as The
Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and Othello have each reached
a total of a hundred performances. Some enthusiasts have
even gone abroad to study methods of Shakespearian pro-
duction, and, coming back with fresh ideas and increased
fervour, have sought to naturalize the latest foreign theories
and practice. In theatrical matters Japan may therefore
claim to have kept well abreast of the times ; and, as we
have said, just before the Great Earthquake the prospects
of Shakespearian drama on the Japanese stage seemed
promising. Still, even had the earthquake not occurred,
there would have been a good many difficulties to overcome
before Shakespeare won full appreciation on this side of the
world. Furthermore, in spite of the encouraging popularity
that he once began to enjoy in the Japanese theatre, it is
doubtful how far he has contributed to the enrichment of
the national culture in general. Not only the public at
large, but also men of letters, seem to have been influenced
by him but little; even Dr. Tsubouchi, notwithstanding his
lifelong labours in introducing Shakespeare into Japan, did
not play the role here that Voltaire did in France or Lessing
in Germany. We can hardly point to any striking sign of
Shakespearian inspiration in the creative literature of the
Meiji era and later; for though Dr. Tsubouchi, as far back
( lei )
as the thirties of Meiji, wrote a Dumber of plays in which
some beneficial Shakespearian influent is discernible, even
he soon emancipated himself entirely. Si in trans-
lating Shakespeare never Sagged, but in his later works there
is scarcely any trace of resemblance to the dramatist wh<
genius he revered.
For this superficial, or at hast limited, influence
Shakespeare in Japan up to the present, three reasons D
be advanced. First, for writers that have not made a special
study of English, and still more for the general public, thi
are formidable linguistic barriers to be scaled; secondly.
Elizabethan manners and customs, obsolete m England
itself, are quite alien to Japanese taste; thirdly, there is ■
great disparity between Western and Japanese ways
thinking. These difficulties, however, need no1 discours
us : Japanese scholars have proved their ability in the study
of Shakespeare's tongue and times; and differences in mode
of thought and in racial temperament are not insurmount-
able, for, as many critics, Western or Japanese, have
recognised, the genius of the universal Poet not only
transcends all local or temporal divergencies of mai tnd
customs, but also unites different temperaments in sympa-
thetic understanding through the tie of an all-embracing
humanity. Again, it is generally admitted that .Japan.
Kabuki bears many resemblances to Elizabethan drama,
for instance, in its disregard of the three unities; hence the
Japanese theatre is by no means a hopeless ground f<>r Un-
healthy development of Shakespearian drama. It is true
that the earthquake was a serious blow; but the forces <>f
recovery were greater than those of destruction.
present China Affair, of course, is actil g ;i cheek on
frivolity, but Shakespeare is unaffected by the grai
atmosphere : we have seen that in March of this year, in the
middle of the national emergency, one <»f his comedies v.
publicly performed in Tokyo with L'reat raccess b) up
of amateurs. The Japanese arc proud as a natii n that in
the long run they have never failed to appreciate everythil
truly great and good, from wherever it may hav< ml
the true greatness of the world's poet has already found
VOL. XXXVI. n
( 162 )
understanding recognition among our foremost critics of life
and letters : this is a gratifying step towards the apprecia-
tion of Shakespeare by the people in general, to whose
unsophisticated hearts he cannot but appeal, for he knows
them and is their friend.
The showing of Shakespearian plays in Japanese cinemas
seems to have begun about 1910. Since then the new art
has rapidly gained upon the theatre, and in these days of
talkies its influence cannot be belittled ; but the old art of
the theatre will live on, and there will always be those who
wish to see Shakespeare's plays performed on the stage for
which they were written. In future, however, will his plays
be more read than watched ? and will the usual medium
for presenting such plays as are still acted be the screen
rather than the stage ? In present-day Japan Shakespeare's
plays are more widely read and studied than they are seen
in either theatre or cinema ; and no Shakespearian film has
as yet been made by a Japanese company. To judge from
tendencies in recent years, Shakespearian study in Japan
may confidently be expected to become more extensive and
thorough, by the combined efforts of a few devoted philo-
logists, of earnest lovers of real literature, and of discerning
and courageous artists of the theatre.
( 163 )
APPENDIX.
A Japanese Shakespeare Bibliography.
Exhaustiveness has not been aimed at in this bibliography,
which covers only the more important part of the Shal :an
literature discussed in the foregoing pages; it contains, how. \er.
some of the later literature not mentioned in them.
following principles have been observed : —
1. Partial translations of Shakespeare's plays have been
omitted, except those in book form that contain at least i
complete scene. The same principle applies to notei and
selections.
2. As a rule magazines have been excluded, but in the
sections of biographies and bibliographies they have 1"
included.
I. — Translations.
1. In a series : —
(a) Shakespeare's Complete Work nly,
each published in a separate volume. Tor
Dainippon Tosho Kabushiki Kais:
Hamlet, by Tozawa Koya (or M isu), 1
Romeo and Juliet, by Tozawa Koya, 1905. Tht
Merchant of Vent . by Asano Hyok\
Wasaburo). 1006. Othello, by T 8
A . Lear, by Tozawa Koya. 1006. V I Ado
About Nothing (" Karasawagi '*), by Tozawa
Koya, 1907. Julit I tr, by Tozawa Koya. l
i You Like It ('* (. . a "i. by \-
Hyokyo, 1908. The C M Vuki-
chigai Monogatari "), by I K 190*.
elfth Night ("Juni 5 by Tozawa K
1909.
(b) Shakespeare'* Masterpieces, which 1 into
Shakespeare's Complett Work* in thirty-nine
volumes, by Tsubouchi Shftyo (or 1 I.
Waseda University Press, between 19
I (mulct, 1900 | reprinted in Vol. :J ture
of the Meiji and Taishti Eras HI} ;Yf k
3C ^ £ $k, Shun> lo, 1928). R
1910. Othello, 1911. Kh r, 1912. J
( 164 )
Caesar, 1913. The Merchant of Venice, 1914. The
Tempest, 1915 (reprinted in Vol. 4 of Shoyo's Select
Works, Shoyo Senshu Kankokai, 1926). Antony
and Cleopatra, 1915 (reprinted in Vol. 5 of Shoyo's
Select Works, Shoyo Senshu Kankokai, 1927). A
Midsummer Night's Dream (" Manatsu no Yo no
Yunae "), 1915 (reprinted in Vol. 4 of Shoyo's Select
Works, Shoyo Senshu Kankokai, 1926). Macbeth,
containing as a supplement " A Historical Sketch
of the Study, Translation, Adaptation, and Staging
of Shakespeare in Japan ", by the translator, 1916
(reprinted in Vol. 5 of Shoyo's Select Works,
Shoyo Senshu Kankokai, 1927, and included in
Shun'yodo's Library of the World's Literary
Masterpieces ( $£ jfjl ig f^ ;£ Jiff ), 1932). Measure
for Measure (" Iseki Hoseki "), 1918 (reprinted in
Vol. 5 of Shoyo's Select Works, Shoyo Senshu
Kankokai, 1927). A Winter's Tale (" Fuyu no
Yobanashi "), 1918. Richard HI, 1918. Henry IV,
Pt. I, 1919 (reprinted in Vol. 4 of Shoyo's Select
Works, Shoyo Senshu Kankokai, 1926). Henry IV,
Pt. II, 1919 (reprinted in Vol. 4 of Shoyo's Select
Works, Shoyo Senshu Kankokai, 1926). As You
Like It (" Oki ni Mesu Mama "), 1920. The
Taming of the Shrew (" Jaja-uma Narashi "),
1920 (reprinted in Vol. 4 of Shoyo's Select Works,
Shoyo's Senshu Kankokai, 1926). Twelfth Night
(" Juni Ya "), 1921. Coriolanus, 1922. Cymbeline,
1923. Love's Labour's Lost (" Koi no Honeorizon "),
1926. Richard III, 1926. The Merry Wives of
Windsor (" Winzoa no Yokina Nyobo "), 1926.
The Comedy of Errors (" Machigai Tsuzuki "),
1926 (included in Shun'yodo's Library of the
World's Literary Masterpieces, 1932). Titus
Andronicus, 1926. Timon of Athens, 1926. The
Two Gentlemen of Verona (" Verona no Ni
Shinshi "), 1926. Much Ado About Nothing
(" Karasawagi "), 1927 (included in Shun'yodo's
Library of the World's Literary Masterpieces,
1932). Troilus and Cressida, 1927. Henry V,
1927. All's Well that Ends Well (" Sue Yokereba
Subete Yoshi "), 1927. King John, 1927. Pericles,
1927. Poems, 1st Series, containing Venus and
Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, 1927.
Henry VIII, 1928. Henry VI, Pt. I, 1928.
( 165 )
Henry VI, Pt. //, 1928. Henry VI, Pt. III. 1028.
Poems, tnd Series, containing s 193
(c) Shakespeare* C iplete Wnri^. \ , R< m
thirty-nine volumes, by Tsubouchi Shoyo. Tokv<
The Chuo Koron Sha, 1988 85.
Hamlet, 1988. Measure i>>r W "Iaeki
Hoseki"), 1988. Ijth Night ("Jflni x
1933. Romeo and Juliet, 1988. /'• ■ Merchant
I mice, 1988. Titus Andn 1988. K
John. 1984. /W-;, ■>, 1984. Tht T ■ Geni
of Verona ("Verona no Ni Shinahi")i 1884.
Richard II, L984. Jutim I ir, 1984. P nni,
1st Series, containing Venus and Adonis and rha
tfape o/ Lucrece, 1934. //am/ 7? (1), 1984.
Henry TV (2), 1934. Timon of Athens, L984.
77; <• Taming of the Shrew ("Jaja-uma Naraahi"),
1934. T/n AFarru (Ft'uea of R r ("Wn I
no Yokina Nyobo "), 19) Henry V, 1984.
He»n/ FI fjf>, 1934. ffenrg PI | u I
IFtnter'a role (" Fnyu no Yobanaahi "), 1984.
Henry VI (8), 1984. Coriohmus, 1984. .1 Mid-
summer Night's Dream (" Manatsu no Yo no
Yume "), 1934. Richard III, 1984. IVofluJ and
Cressida, 1984. King Lear, 1984. La Y ' 71
(" Oki ni Mesu Mama "). 1984. P ■■■ . ' d 8
containing Sonneta, 1984. rha / I -" I taffl ").
1934. 4H»a IFeU that /■></>■ »',// (" Sue* Yokereba
Subete Yoshi "), 1985. Antony and CL <>(>atr.
Macbeth, 1985. Mncfl 4<io About S ,:
(" Mudasawa«i "). 1985. 1 r*i I
(" Koi no Honeorizon "). 10 H ■■- / FI77,
1935. Othello, 191 Cumhelin. . 1985.
Comedy of Errors (" Maebigai Tsu/.uki "i. 1985.
2. Separate Works and Selections : —
T/ie Sword o/ Liberty Shows if- K !
(g ft * ?J » & & #>• • •• ' ,,v
Tsubouchi Yuzo. Toy ok an, 1884. Reprinted in
Vol. 14 of the Culture of th. Meiji I
( m uJ X it ^ ft >• compiled b] Yoafamo
Sakuzo, The Nippon Sydronaha,
Love's Young Dream in thi I
iS: £, 1£ )• '• •• " ;'"' J"1"'- ' ima
Keizo. Koounaha, 1888. Reprinted in Vol. 14 of
the Culture of the Meiji Bra sen. .tinned
above.
( 166 )
A Mirror of Roman Vicissitudes (J§ #| $$ H |g), *-e->
Julius Caesar, by Tenko Isshi (Komiyayama
Keisuke) and Orin Bunjin (Kawashima Keizo).
Shinshindo, 1886.
The Mirror of a Hero's Life (|^$|— $t$£),i.e., Coriolanus,
by Itakura Kotaro. Seibundo, 1888.
Flowers in a Mirror and the Moon in the Water ( ^ jfc
?X B )> i-e-> The Comedy of Errors, by Watanabe
Osamu. Shuseisha, 1888.
Summer Grass (jg ^r ), i.e., Venus and Adonis, by
Shimazaki Toson. First published in the
Bungakukai (The Realm of Belles Lettres),
No. 38 (February, 1896). Reprinted in Vol. 2
of the Library of the Masters ( ^ ^ 3£ ^ ),
compiled by Takamatsu Masamichi, Daigakkan,
1899.
The Trial Scene from The Merchant of Venice, by
Dohi Shunsho. Hattori Shoten, 1903. Reprinted
in the same author's Kaburagi Hideko. Shunyodo,
1910.
A Prince's Miraculous Revenge, i.e., Hamlet, by
Toyama Masakazu (or Chuzan). Contained in
Vol. 2 of Chuzan's Posthumous Works, compiled
by Toyama Shinsaku. Maruzen Company, 1909.
The Trial Scene from The Merchant of Venice, by
Tsubouchi Yuzo. Contained in his Works and
Criticism. Waseda University Press, 1909.
Reprinted in Book 1 of Reading-books for
Appreciation of Foreign Dramatic Masterpieces
<& ft £ ft & ft II n m #). compiled by
Osanai Kaoru and Kitamura Kihachi. Shin-
shidansha, 1826.
Macbeth, by Mori Ogai. Keiseisha Shoten, 1913.
Reprinted in Vol. 11 of Ogai's Complete Works,
Ogai Zenshu Kankokai, 1925.
Romeo and Juliet, by Kume Masao. No. 26 of The
Shincho Library (%ft M 3t }$■)• Shinchosha, 1915.
Reprinted in Vol. 1 of Shinchosha's Select Western
Plays series (J^ j§ gt $ jg ip, 1922, and
included in Unabridged Translations of Shake-
speare's Select Masterpieces mentioned below.
Hamlet, by Kume Masao. No. 38 of The Shincho
Library. Shinchosha, 1915. Reprinted in Vol. 4
of Shinchosha's Select Western Plays series, 1922,
( 167 )
and included in Vnahridgi I Translai S
spean ' s '■' mentioned belon .
Unabridged Translation* <>j Shakei
pieces (£ Qf $ £ f, f£ £g). eonta the
preceding two plays a eUo, I . K • M
Shinchosha, 1916. OtheU reprinted in Vol. 12
of Shinchosli Selecl Western Plays
Terrestrial Light ( ill _fc 0 jlfc )i containing Antony >intl
Cleopatra, compiled l>y Futamura Kazuo. Tamai
Seibundo, 1928.
Othello, by Osanai Kaoru, Vol. l of Shal
Complete R orks ( -> *- ? * f 7 £■ % ).
Shuhokaku. 1925. Reprinted in Vol. 6 ol Tl
Classical Drama Beries ( /,* |iL #l| A; ^ )• com
piled by Yoshizawa Kozaburo. Kindaiaha, I
The Merchant of Venice, by Osanai Kaoru. Vol. 2 of
Shakespeare's Complete Works. Shuhokaku, i
The Trial Scene was reprinted in Hook I
Reading - books for Appreciation o/ /
Dramatic Masterpieces, compiled by 0
Kaoru and Kitamura Kihachi. Shinahidansha,
i!»26. The complete play was reprinted in Vol. 5
of The Classical Drama series, compiled by
Yoshizawa Kozaburo. Kindaiaha, 199
Troilus and Cressida, by Kimura Sola. Contained in
Vol. 5 of The World's Women Library I \U; ft U
A 3t fik )• Sckai Bunken Kankokai, 1996.
Hamlet, Othello, and Tht V I of V- , by
Takahara Nobuo. Contained in Vol. i ol Repre-
sentative Works of the World's Great Writers
(ifc # £ U K; % ft £ ^ s,k:l1 Bun«0
Daihyosaku Zenshu Kankokai, 199
.1 Midsummer Night*i Dream, by Hogiyama Shigeru,
and Othello and Th, W '.
by Osanai Kaoru (previously mentioned). Con
tained in Vol. 5 of The Classical Drama
compiled by Yoshizawa KozaburO. Kindaiaha, i
.1 Midsummer Night*s Dr , bj Yanagida [zumi.
Contained in Vol. 22 ol The World I
series ( jll; ft 5 6j * sompiled by Yoshizawa
Kozaburo. Kindaisha, l
SW.-, ' 5 I P/at/s (^^Kb'Tf),!
Othello, Hamlt t, and R hiliet, by
Iliroshi. Vol. 9 of The World Literature Liu
( •& m%^- £ £)• Tt"' ( ,IU" s,,1!
( 168 )
The Trial Scene from The Merchant of Venice. Con-
tained in Juvenile Plays (fa j|f ^1] J$P ;£), a
dramatisation of the text-book used in elementary-
school advanced courses, compiled by Miyagawa
Kikumatsu and Miura Seisaku. Koseikaku, 1928.
Plays of Shakespeare, containing Hamlet, Julius Caesar,
The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, The Two
Gentlemen of Verona and Romeo and Juliet, by
Yokoyama Yusaku. Shinchosha, 1929. Hamlet,
Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar were included
later in The Shincho Library, 1933.
Plays of Shakespeare, containing Othello and The
Merchant of Venice, by Osanai Kaoru, A Mid-
summer Night's Dream and Hamlet, by Sato
Tokuji, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra, by
Izumi Takeshi, and Romeo and Juliet, by Kitamura
Kihachi, with a short life of Shakespeare and
commentaries on the plays translated. Vol. 3 of
The World Drama series ( -ffr ^ J^ ft ^ ^ ).
Sekai Gikyoku Zenshu Kankokai, 1929.
Romeo and Juliet, by Honda Kensho. Koyama Shoten,
1933.
Hamlet, by Honda Kensho. Koyama Shoten, 1933.
Hamlet, A New Translation, by Uraguchi Bunji.
Sanseido, 1934.
Macbeth, by Nogami Toyoichiro. Iwanami Shoten, 1938.
II. — Notes and Annotated Translations (including some
reprints).
1. In a series : —
(a) The Kenkyusha English Classics series (^f % ft ^
t£ jp || ^H). Of the one hundred and seventeen
volumes (in the republished series), twelve are
given to Shakespeare's works, with full notes.
Kenkyusha, between 1921 and 1928. (All are
translated by Ichikawa Sanki, unless otherwise
stated.)
King Lear, 1921. Hamlet, 1922. Julius Caesar and
The Tempest, 1922. Antony and Cleopatra, 1923.
Macbeth, 1925. Othello, 1925. Venus and Adonis,
The Rape of Lucrece, and Sonnets, by Okakura
Yoshisaburo, 1928. The Merchant of Venice, 1928.
As You Like It, 1928. King Henry IV, Pts. I
and II, 1929. Romeo and Juliet, 1929. A Mid-
summer Night's Dream, 1931.
( 169 )
(b) Annotated Translations of Shakespeare's Plays (with
parallel text) ( fj & ft g ^*^ * *T US), by
Sawamura Torajiro. Kenkyusha.
T/j<- Merchant of Venice, 1988. Julius Csesar, 1988.
Macbeth, 1934. Hamlet, 1985. .1 Midsiunmcr
Night's Dream, 1937.
2. Separate Plays and Selections : —
T/?c Merchant of Venice, with notes in English, by
W. G. Clarke. The Faculty of Literature, Tokyo
Daigaku, 1878.
Swinton's Studies in English Literature (in English), by
Kamei Chuichi. Sanseido, 1889. The Funeral of
Julius Caesar in the Studies was later reprinted in
A Guide-book of English Literature ( 3£ ;£ Jp f& frfi ) •
by Shigaraki Kinkichi. Keigyosha, 1898.
The Trial Scene from " The Merchant of Venice "
(XfomAkW&U2.i%mmm)>* corre-
spondence course, annotated and translated by
Isobe Yaichiro. Kokumin Eigakkai Bungakkai,
1891. Reprinted by Sanseido, 1892.
An Explanation of " Julius Csesar " ( \* Ip t) fo ~f (_, —
J* £ fH |^), an annotated translation, by Okura
Motozumi. Kaishindo, 1892.
Macbeth, with notes in English. Yoshioka Shosekiten,
1892.
The Merchant of Venice, with K. Deighton's notes in
English. Okazakiya Shoten, 1893.
A Winter's Tale, with K. Deighton's notes in English.
Fuzarabo, 1896.
u Macbeth " and the Historical Macbeth (in English).
Okazaki Shoten, 1898.
Hamlet, with K. Deighton's notes in English. Kyoeki
Shosha, 1900.
An Explanation of Passages of English Poetry an<l Prose
( ^ ^p 3£ f^ ^ ), containing a translation of
Hamlet (to Act, I, Sc. iv), and an annotated
translation of Macbeth (to Act II), by Tsubouchi
Yuzo (Shoyo). Tokyo Semmon Gakko Press, 1902.
(The translation of Hamlet first appeared in the
Chud Gakujutsu Zasshi, i.e., Centra! Magazine of
Science and Art, in 1885, and the annotated trans-
lation of Macbeth in the Waseda Bunnaku, i.e.,
Waseda Journal of Literature, in 1891. Both were
reprinted in Shoyo's Select Works ( jft ^ itllfS)'
1927.
( 170 )
A Correspondence Course in English Literature (^^ |f|
ill ^ $& )' containing an annotated translation of
the Funeral Scene from Julius Caesar and the Trial
Scene from The Merchant of Venice in Swinton's
Studies in English Literature, by Isobe Yaichiro.
The Kokumin Eigakkai Press, 1903.
Julius Caesar, with K. Deighton's notes in English.
Kaishindo, 1903.
The Tragedy of Othello, an annotated translation by
Sugano Tokusuke. Genkosha, 1909. Reprinted by
Yuhodo, 1928.
Julius Csesar, Schlegel's translation, edited by Mizutani
Yumihiko. Seikashoin, 1910.
Swinton's Studies in English Literature, translated and
annotated by Okamura Aizo. Kobunsha, 1911.
A Winter's Tale (in English). The Imperial Theatre,
1916.
Macbeth, with notes in English by Lombard. Haku-
bunkan, 1916.
The Merchant of Venice, annotated in English by
Ichikawa Sanki. Kenkyusha, 1917.
King Lear, with notes in English by Lombard. Haku-
bunkan, 1917.
Macbeth, annotated in English by Ichikawa Sanki.
Kenkyusha, 1918.
The Merchant of Venice, with notes in English by
Lombard. Hakubunkan, 1920.
Othello (in English), by Isobe Yaichiro. The Kokumin
Eigakkai Press, 1921.
Julius Csesar, annotated by Ichikawa Sanki. Kenkyusha,
1925.
Soseki's " Othello ", i.e., Othello annotated and criticised
by Natsume Soseki. Compiled by Nogami Toyoi-
chiro. Tetto Shoin, 1930.
Julius Cvesar, with Exhaustive Notes, by Tsuzuki
Tosaku. Kenkyusha, 1931.
Hamlet, with Exhaustive Notes, by Tsuzuki Tosaku,
with an Introduction by Okakura Yoshisaburo.
Kenkyusha, 1932.
" Hamlet ", as Seen by the Elizabethan Audience, by
Uraguchi Bunji. Sanseido, 1932.
Julius Csesar, edited with notes by Hosoe Itsuki.
Taibundo, 1935.
Macbeth, edited with notes by Hosoe Itsuki, Taibundo,
1937.
( 171 )
Tin Merchant of Venice, edited with i ■■>• Hi
Itsuki. Taibundo, 1988.
III.— Adaptations (either Japanised < r freely changed).
All for Money (|f CDfltQtf*), ... PJ V
1 »tce, l>y Udagawa Bunkai. HobundO, IS
An outline <>f this adaptation by Katsu (;<•:
published by Niizane Hachirobei, 180<
U Fou Ltfce /7, by I dagawa Bunkai. Shinshindo, 18
.1- / ike as T § '>l-lni:, > ( ;; £ gj
of Errors, by Sairo'en RyukO. Published t>v [noui
Katsugorc 188
Hamlet, by Dohi Shunsho and Yamagishj Ea
Fuzambo, 1908. N.B. Hamlet by 5 d>i
Kayo was published by Shun'yddd' in 1007.
Terumaro, a Japanese version ol linn, I, t, adapted l>v
Dohi Shunsho and Yamagishj Kayo* bom J.
I mezawa's translation. Only three copies, pri:
by Essie E. Wood at tin- Japan Herald Office,
Yokohama, 1905.
Timon of Athene, by Kojima Koahu. abe Shoten,
1911. Reprinted by Isolx KyddO, 1014. I I
and Cleopatra, by Shimamura Hogetsu. Shinchoaha,
1914. Reprinted in Vol, 5 of //• _ ' I
Works. Ten'yusha, 1010.
" Hamlet " and a Study of tin Play, l>y Tsubouchi
Shiko. FuzambO, 1018.
Romeo and Juli't. by Hayashi Yasushi. Gahdsha, L018.
IV. — Translations of Lamb's Tales from 8hakc8peare.
As You Like It, by Fujita Meikaku. No. i i f Pictorial
Serials of Tales from Shakespeare. Shummuro,
1883.
The Merchant of l . by [none* Tsutomu. KinkodO,
1883. Reprinted by Nomura Ginjiro in ISC
Kakumeido in the same year, by Ginkadfl in i -
and by Kocbisha in
M">-nrc f<>r Measure, l>y Nrtt i B ijirO. ChfikindO, li
Tales from Shakespeare (Hamlet, Kh I
Gentlemen of Vt . hfacbeth, Cymbeline, and I
Merchant of Pentce) [by Kinoehita Shinzabur0( -)|.
Shinada Takichi, 1 -
King Lear, translated and published by Takcurhi
Yojojiro, 1886.
Roimo and Juliet, by Kinoehita Shinxabur
1887.
( 172 )
Pericles, by Akashi Shinzaburo (Kinoshita Shinzaburo).
Shinada Takichi, 1887.
All's Well that Ends Well, by Wada Mankichi. Choudo,
1888.
The Taming of the Shrew, by Nitta Keijiro. Seishinsha,
1888.
The Tempest, by Nitta Keijiro. Seishinsha, 1888.
Timon of Athens, by Nitta Keijiro. Nishihara Kiichi,
1888.
Hamlet, by Inoue Tsutomu. Kunoki Nobuyoshi, 1888.
The Taming of the Shrew, by an unknown translator.
Included in Vol. 8 of Lives of the World's Hundred
Greatest Men series. Hakubunkan, 1890.
Othello, by Jono Dempei. Hakubunkan, 1893.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, by Shima Kasui (or
Bunjiro). Included in A Literary Miscellany for
Summer Reading, compiled by Chugakusha.
Chugaku Shoin, 1899.
Hamlet, by Shoan. Nakanishiya Shoten, 1901.
Tales from Shakespeare, containing Macbeth, The
Tempest, and Twelfth Night, by Sugitani Daisui.
Fuzambo, 1903.
Tales from Shakespeare, containing Hamlet and The
Merchant of Venice, by Nakashima Koto. Fuzambo,
1903.
Ten Tales from Shakespeare (King Lear, Othello, Romeo
and Jidiet, Macbeth, Hamlet, As You Like It,
Twelfth Night, The Tempest, The Merchant of
Venice, and A Winter's Tale), by Komatsu
Takeharu. Hitaka Yurindo, 1904. Hakubunkan,
1907.
The Merchant of Venice, a verse translation, by
Tomikashi Banshin (or Kanjiro). Yuhodo, 1908.
Hamlet, by Nakagawa Ryugai. Tosendo, 1908.
King Lear, by Jono Dempei. Okawa Shoten, 1909.
Tales from Shakespeare, by Momoshima Misao. Naigai
Shuppan Kyokai, 1909.
The Merchant of Venice, by Yoshioka Koyo. Shun'yodo,
1910.
Hamlet, by Soma Gyofu. Fuzambo, 1911.
Hamlet, by Takano Hanzan. Shun'yodo, 1911.
The above mentioned translations were all pub-
lished during the Meiji era. Of the many trans-
lations of stories from Shakespeare that have
appeared since, the following three merit special
( ITS )
notice. The last two each contain the translation
of all twenty of Lamb's Talcs.
Quiller-Couch's Tales from Shakespeare's Histories, by
Komatsu Takeharu. Hokubundo, 1914.
Lamb's " Tales from Shakespeare ", by Ilirata Tokuboku.
Contained in Vol. 11 of The World's Literary
Masterpieces (fc # & ft ± *&)» 2nd Series'
Kokumin Bunko Kankokai, 1927.
Lamb's " Tales from Shakespeare ", by Nogami Yayoiko.
Iwanami Shoten, 1932.
V.— Biographies (comprising books either wholly or partly
devoted to Shakespeare's life) and Studies. Histories of
English literature are omitted here. For the treatment
of Shakespeare in them, see Chapter VII of the text.
Western Biographical Dictionary in Alphabetical Order
<# g & # B W A £ * 31). by Yoshida
Isoho. Published by the author, 1879. Reprinted
under the title of Short Lives of Western Sages in
the following year.
Mirror of Famous Occidentals (|£ ^ £ ± |g), trans-
lated by Inui Tatsuo and Nakahara Junzo from
Fifty Famous Men, etc. Koizumido, 1880.
A Short Life of William Shakespeare, contained in
Vol. Ill, No. 2 (1887) of the Bungaku Zasshi,
organ of the Japanese Literary and Scientific
Circle, a branch of the Chautauqua L. S. C.
A New Encyclopaedia for Practical Education (f£ $ ffc
W % $t W fr ^ §)' VoL 22> comPiled by Sonoda
Raishiro. Hakubunkan, 1889.
An International Biographical Dictionary} ($S|J11A£^§)>
Vol. 1, compiled by Yamada Taketaro. Haku-
bunkan, 1893.
Lives of English and American Men of Letters ( $l %
3t AflJ)> compiled by Owada Tateki. Hakubunkan,
1894.
Short Lives of Western Sages (ffi ^ ^ =g * {$)» com-
piled by Inoue Enryo. Tetsugakkan, 1900.
Shakespeare, by Nakamura Yoshio. Vol. 21 of Stories
from the World's History series. Hakubunkan,
1901.
An Outline History of the British Drama ( ^t (p) &
| ||i), by Shima Bunjiro. Hobunkan, 1903.
A Literary Encyclopaedia (£ gC "^ ft Q ^), compiled
by Shimamura Hogetsu. Ryubunkan, 1909.
Shakespeare, a New Translation ( ff p v '* ^ ^ f T ),
( 174 )
compiled by Sasayama Jun'ichi from Hazlitt,
Coleridge, Dowden, etc. Seikado Shoten, 1910.
Encyclopaedia Japonica (ft ;£. ^f ffi ^ $$ Jfc), Vol. 4,
containing Shakespeare by Tsubouchi Shoyo and
Nakashima Kato. Compiled by Saito Seisuke.
Sanseido, 1910.
A Study of the Play " Hamlet " (>, u u v V j||j #f % ),
by Hirata Motokichi. Fuzambo, 1910.
A Correspondence Course in Literature ( ^ j|l §H H || )>
containing Yuho Ujin's Shakespeare. Compiled by
Sato Yoshiaki. Nippon Bunsho Gakuin, 1912.
The Ancient History of Japan, Based On a Study of
World History (ft^£#J#f?£ U ^ tYl h U*±
^ l& )> by Kimura Takataro. Hakubunkan, 1912.
In Vol. 1 of this book Hamlet and some other
characters in the play are identified with figures in
Japanese tradition.
Shakespeare's " Hamlet " and its Oriental Materials
<?>£©^* "9 1- RMfttflttn), by Kimura
Takataro. Meicho Hyoronsha, 1915.
Shakespeare, His Life and Art ( i/ .x. ? j* *■' T $£ 0) &
i ]k CX S ffl)> by Saito Takeshi. Teibisha, 1916.
Stories of the World's Great Men (ft J^ {$: A W)> cou-
taining Shakespeare, King of Literature. Compiled
by Inamura Ro'en. Bun'yodo, 1917.
Lives of the World's Thirty Greatest Men ( ft JfjL 5£ -f-
%■ A Wk )' compiled by Nishimura Fuminori and
Kurimura Kimizo. Kokumin Shoin, 1918.
Shakespeare, a translation from Taine's History of English
Literature, by Kimura Sota. Vol. 8 of the Human-
Documents ( A lit <D & ) series. The Atarashiki
Mura Press, 1924.
The World's Two Hundred Greatest Writers ( ft ^- H
W 3£ §j£ )> compiled by Tae Fumio. Shun'yodo,
1924.
The Shakespearian Stage and its History {fy $& M^k £
£ © HI SI )> by Ueda Seiji. (Posthumous publi-
cation). Iwanami Shoten, 1925.
Shakespeare, by Takahara Nobuo. Vol. 3 of Outlines of
the World's Literature ( ft )$. % |p 'XM) series.
Toho Shuppansha, 1926.
Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare ( i/ x. — ?
* f T $F % % ), by Tsubouchi Shoyo. Chuo
Koron Sha, 1928, 1935 (revised and enlarged).
( 175 )
Lectures on the British Drama ( £ [$ £i| j$ g ), by
Ai>e Takasln. Sanseidd, 192
Shnlo I. glish, by 1 1- .mm- [tsuki. /'
(The Rising Generation), April, 1929 March, Ifl
Studies in Shakespeare ( i/ * — -^ ^. t" r (,i| fljr),
Vokoyama Yusaku. Taibunsha, 1081.
Shakespeare and \\'nrl,{ Literature < •>-*-! ? x t' r £
"ffi: $■ 3t <*£). by Honda Kenshd. [wanami S
Bungaku MTirs. 1988.
Shakespeare, by Doi Kochi. Vol. 6 of English and
American Men of Letters series ( tfc f„ X *P .if- \H
3& fr" )• Kenkyusha, 1985.
Essays on Shakespeare < •/ *- ? * f r X USnil). by lb
Kensho Sakiibinsha, Ifl
Shakespeare in the Elizabethan S< I i ^ /^ j (ft j^
-^ 5^ * 4 ^ * b* 7 V H & ). by Hagitanj
Takehiko. Shukodo. L986.
VI. — Bibliographies : —
.1 Shakespeare-Bibliography (;'-]; ^ ft i\± i. compiled by
I da Bin. In a book entitled \ I /.'
(0|fH{4$,< published m IflO Maruaei I
in commemoration of the Railwaj Exhibition.
1 Japanesi Shakespeare-Bibliography I 11 4^ " ^
TilfEc;,), compiled by [chikawa Sanki and J
^uchi Takcnii. Kenkyusha. In / s'
Enulisft ( ^t jg tf{ JflJ >. a monthly ma
Vol. XXIII, No. 12 Vol. XXIV, V . i (M
April 1981), Vol. XXTV, Nos.
S,pt. 1981, Nov. L981 dan. L982), Vol. XXV,
Xos. 5—11 (Aug. l 982 Feb. 1988).
A Catalogue <>f Books Relating to Shakespean in Ja\
( H ^ i<b £ ,«V II % ff). 1*1 - mpiled by
Yamaguchi Takemi. ShisendO, 1988.
BINDING SECT, MAY 2 1968
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